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When I remember my hunt for the Chamois in the Austrian Alps , it reminds me the ski mountain trip. I visited lots of alpine chalets and noticed and not once the small horns which decorated the walls of those nice apartments. Each time when I saw those decoration I asked myself where did they habitat? Rising the mountain by the ski lift I saw the hoof prints but had never seen the chamois.  At last I decided to hunt for that outlandish animal which habited on the slopes where we skied.  It sounded romantic, isn’t it? I got the chance to do it on the New Year Party organized by the CMH, when won the slot from the ProfiHunt company “Hunting for the chamois in Austria”.  I gotta hand it to the outfitter and personally to Artem Veselov, - all the conditions and wishes were  done in the full accordance with the slot. I wanted to take my family  and one more condition was that I wanted my daughter took part in the hunt. It imposed the restrictions to the dates of the trip, we could hunt just in the dates of the school vacations, though the Austrian consider August and November to be the optimal time for hunting . In a week before the departure Artem send me all recommendations and contacts of my Austrian PH Uve.  I contacted with him and discussed all details. He suggested me to rent one of the rifles which he had. and I’d chosen Blazer R93, cal. 300 WM. At the beginning we were going to hunt in the area which belonged to Uve, near Rissek but then he changed the plans and suggested to organize everything in the nearest hunting lands, which belonged to his friend Ulrich. It was October 5th, when we arrived to Carinthia near Muldorf. Uve waited for us at the place and accommodated in the cozy 100meters apartments with the valley view. Nice restaurant was located in the next house. The next three days should be devoted to the hunt. In the morning we had breakfast and I tested the gun. I was surprised by the way how we did it. We just descended to the valley, drove about 1 km from the highway to the small lake, surrounded by the the houses. The aim was put on the opposite side of the lake.  The way to Ulrich’s land leaded through the deserted rocks, covered by high coniferous forest. The parts of forest were changed by rocks and bright green meadows with cows. Sometimes we met wooden cabins. It was very picturesque.  Ulrich lived there with his wife, five kids and cows. He wasn’t at home and nobody left the home to say us Hello when we had arrived though all family members were in as we knew later.  We waited for the host, wandered around the yard and considered the antlers of different sizes which were everywhere.  Those animals were hunted by the host and his guests from almost from the house. Ulrich arrived in 15 minutes and told us that was reconnoitering the surroundings but didn’t find anything. He looked like I imagined. He wore Austrian hunting hat and leather trousers.  We discussed where we’d drive and moved along the deep gorge to the hunting land. In a half of an hour we stopped, hiked about 200 meters when the guide detected the chamois which grazed on the opposite slope in 400 meters from us. Ulrich was not in vain on checking the surroundings before our arrival.  We should have to descend along the slope and to go through the valley. It wasn’t hard and soon we came to the old hunting sit-in located near the cut forest but there wasn’t our chamois. We began to move to the right discussing where it could be and spotted the male on another side of the logged forest. The chamois moved from the one edge of the meadow to the other one and was in 100 meters from us. Uve referred to me that I had to decide what to do because it was the male (as I wanted) and had trophy size. I could hardly hear what he told me because watched the male which had good size and was ready to run away. Uve and Ulrich was really glad that I did the accurate shot because not all clients could fire accurately. But the distance  was just 100 meters… It was short and luck hunt but it was wild and honest hunt in the same time. We were lucky. I got really nice trophy, it’s horns were 23 sm each. We didn’t estimate its age but it was clear that it was old. That trip agreed my idea that the value of  hunting trips was not in only in getting trophies but in the opportunity to plunge into a new atmosphere. So we had enough time to travel around Carinthia and enjoyed the Austrian hospitality.

A growing upper class in China is poised to be the next key market for growth in international hunting. At the November 2019 Convention and AGM of the Professional Hunters Association of South Africa (PHASA), safari operators learned about the expanding interest in hunting among the Chinese during a presentation from Jerry Li, CEO and founder of the new China Hunting Show. According to Li there is a growing segment of Chinese who actively hunt in China and now dream of hunting elsewhere. This growing interest led Li to launch the China Hunting Show in 2019, the first international hunting show held in China. He invited PHASA members to join him for the show taking place in March 2020 in Shanghai, China. Despite tight government controls on firearms and shooting activities, hunting and the shooting sports have become a growing interest among well-off Chinese citizens who are joining government –approved hunting clubs. Hunting opportunities in China are restricted to properties called hunting farms, which must be registered with the government. Li says there are 180 registered hunting farms throughout 21 of China’s 26 provinces. Local club memberships can run up to 13 000 members. Hunting is mostly for wild boar, with licenses issued by the local governments of each province. Who are these hunters? According to Li they are successful upper-middle to upper class professionals. “Chinese hunters are very wealthy,” he says. “They are the kind of people who do business through private banks and have lots of investments.” These hunters do not come from the long and established hunting cultures typically found among hunters in North America, Europe, Africa and other destinations. This market is at an early stage of development , but participants have a heightened interest in all things hunting, including traveling to go hunting and pursuing a variety of species. Many developing Chinese hunters are eager to create trophy rooms like those they have seen in books, but they don’t’ quite know how to go about doing it. That offers international hunting companies a unique opportunity to educate and mold a growing hunting community. “Chinese hunters trust outfitters from outside of China and they want to travel and hunt, “ Li told PHASA’s safari operator members. The first show took place in 2019, with outfitters from southern Africa, New Zealand and Canada among the international exhibitors. Jumbo Moore of Chapungu- Kambako Safaris exhibited at the 2019 China Hunting Show and says there is great opportunity in China as a developing market, but operators dealing with Chines hunters must be prepared to educate their clients. Chinese hunters are eager to experience different species, but they are not yet accustomed to the selective nature of trophy hunting. “Many of the just want to experience the bush and pursue whatever they may come across,” he says. “ They are enthusiastic but need guidance in developing their hunting skills and understanding.” Moore says that while there are some more experienced Chinese hunters, many Chinese clients would benefit from starting out with cull hunts first and then being guided to more selective forms of hunting. Li describes the China Hunting Show as an “international platforms” to communicate, serve and do business with China’s growing hunting industry. The show includes international hunting grounds, hunting products, associations and organizations, hunters and hunting agencies. He say the goal of the show is to promote and create commercial opportunities for the Chinese hunting industry as well as strengthen communication and cooperation with the international hunting industry. “We welcome partners from all around the world,” he says. “Our goal is to develop the emerging Chinese hunting market, spread the hunting culture in China and create business value for the developing industry in China.” For more information on the China Hunting Show, check out the website at www.chinahuntingshow.org.cn Li can be reached at jerryli@chinahuntingshow.org.cn.

Edward Bendersky – the President of the CMH, has become the first hunter who got 50 mountain ungulates from the Capra list of CMH, and won the award “CAPRA of the WORLD. SUPER 50”.   Once Edward Bendersky has said that his life position is to set high goals and reach it. The mountain hunting becomes more popular among the hunter all over the world. They form specialized clubs and try to reach the definite levels. He also set such aims. From 2010 about 80% of all his hunts were for  the mountains ungulates. The collection grew fast and at last at the beginning of October, 2019 he became the first hunter who got 50 SPECIES, SUB-SPECIES AND MORPHS ACCORDING THE CAPRA LIST OF THE MHC! The lists of Ovis and Capra are in different hunting clubs too but there are two main differences.  According to the rules in the foreign hunting clubs the hunter can get the limited number of the mountain ungulates but no limits for shooting other species such as stags or others. The trophy commission of the CMH stroke down such restrictions and expanded the lists. One more moment which we had to mention is that about ten sheep from forty seven listed in in the GSCO are recorded in the international Red Book. Some hunters are lucky to take those species while it has been possible but none of the beginners can reach the level of 40 sheep now. The list of Capra GSCO contains several goats which can’t be legally hunted now. Who needs such guidelines nowadays? The CMH chosen another way.  The Club’s ratings include animals which belong to the same species or sub-species but taken in different regions or countries. The Club make the differentiations by subspecies, populations and morphs.  It gives the additional advantages to the hunters because they can get the new experience hunting in different regions and countries and communicating with new people. Such actions provide people who live in that areas with the job and help to save and protect the population of the animals because the locals who work in the local hunting companies begin to protect them from the poachers and wolves.  The protection of animals is one of the Club’s goal. The members of our Club can take 50 and 60 mountains ungulates because our lists are wider. The Club doesn’t compete with others and we open to cooperation and ready to contact.  We don’t mind if the members of our Club will be the members of others.  We respect the experience and status of our north American colleagues but out rules and rating tables are in priority for us/ Traditionally the American hunters try to outdo each other in hunting for sheep.  The expansion of mountain hunting has started from the USA but there are several species of sheep and only one kind of the goat (The goat of Rocky Mountains) inhabit there.  One of the most important American Grand Slam is for 4 sheep which inhabit in the North America.  But there are lots of mountains ungulates which belong to the Capra Group which inhabit in other parts of the world.  Hunting for some of them is even more hard and interesting than hunting for the sheep. They haunt  in the remote rocky mountains and hunting in such condition is really taught. Edward Bendersky estimated the level of complexity when hunting for  ibexes and elected hunting for the  Capra species to Ovis. He got the level Super 40 and took the new frontiers Super 50! The editorial of our magazine  and the Administration of the CMH congratulates The Presidents of the Club with the outstanding result and wish him new records and success  in the projects of conservation and enhancement of wildlife.

Well- known zoologists V. Geptner, A. Nasimovich and A. Bannikov wrote the fundamental work of “Mammals Of USSR. Artiodactyls” and set up the idea to acclimatize chamois in the Crimea mountains. It was in 1961. At first glance it looks very attractive because the Crimea Mountains look like the Alps in Europe and we all know that chamois habitat there since time immemorial. Moreover we know that chamois acclimatized well in the New Zealand where they hadn’t dwelled before. The fact of introduction of this species to the new territory, allowed us to hope that they would settle in Crimea. We found the report about the expedition in Crimea written in 1858 by the zoologist from the Kiev University Karl Kessler, who wrote :”… the population of chamois in the Crimea mountains is much higher than the deer’s one”. Relying on this information and wishing to increase the number of biodiversity of mountains ungulates in Russia, the Club of Mountain Hunters considered appropriate to make the scientific research of this problem. We signed the agreement with the FSBI “Federal Center of the development of hunting” for making the preliminary researching of possibility of reintroduction of Chamois in Crimea. According to the agreement the officers of FSBI and other involved professionals had to make the analysis of the historical habitat of chamois in our country, in particular in Crimea. The specialists had to study the opportunity of (re)acclimatization of chamois in Crimea. They had to study special faunal sources and to make the analysis of documents but the most important thing was to define the optimal territory on the peninsular which will be enough or optimal for the acclimatization of chamois. The needed territory must have minimum number factors which can limit the population. For example there have to be small number or full absence of big predators and low anthropogenic impact, it must have lots of pastures and other analogies with the habitats of the Caucasian chamois. All desk and field works are finished already and main specialists (the specialist of the 1st category S. Ponomarenko, the leading specialist T. Sipko) prepared the report “"Crimea-the territory of the probable historical range of chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra L. 1758) and the prospects of its introduction into the established ecosystem”. In accordance with the 1st Part of the Federal Law #9 ,art. 33 from 14.03.1995 “About specially protected natural territories”, the introduction of living organisms , in order to acclimatize them, is prohibited on the territory of the Natural reserves. The only variant which we could use in the Crimean Natural Reserve was to (re)acclimatization. After we’d studied the historical literary sources and consulted with the specialists from the Crimean Federal University we excluded the possibility of habitat of chamois on the peninsular. We admit that Karl Klesser, whose report we mention before, was mistaken when called roes like chamois. Probably it happened because people from the Eastern Europe called roes like srnčy. It sounds like chamois in Russian. The data of the paleontological researches didn’t prove the idea that chamois habituated there before. It meant, that we can talked just about the introduction of chamois to the territory of the hunting lands. The specialists explored the potential biotypes for chamois habitat on the territory of the Natural Reserve and made visual estimations on the 130 km route. The most of pastures are used by the ungulates which historically dwell there such as deers, roes and mouflons. The density of their population is 64 animal per 1 thousand ha. The serious damage especially in winter is caused to ungulates by feral dogs. Moreover wolves came there in 2014. The rocks which are the natural shelters from predators occupy just small area which is not enough for the living of big chamois population. The idea of introduction of chamois to the area of Natural Reserves didn’t find the support. In the end of June the officers explored the territory of two hunting lands “Alushtinsky forest land” and “ Hunting area “The cold Mountain”. The route distance was 143 km. Alushtinsky hunting area- Demerdzhi Yayla is protected area and all kinds of hunting is prohibited there. It has good food supply and there are enough places where ungulates can refuge. According the forecast of our experts about 85 animals can habit there. The ridge Karabi Yayla can became the home for more than 100 chamois. Those two centers has square 4 861 ha and located in 4 km from each other. The micro population of 200 chamois could emerge in that place someday. We has to note that one of the specialists , the candidate of biological Sciences, head of the laboratory for monitoring of focal ecosystems A. I. Dulitsky, gave the negative estimation of the project of acclimatization of chamois in Crimea. His main argument was that the territory of the prospective acclimatization is too small and densely populated by other ungulates. The addition of chamois would lead to the ecological problems. He reminded about the unsuccessful resettlement of bison in Crimea. Now it’s clear that there not enough food for those animals on the peninsular. The FSBI “Federal Center of the development of hunting” wrote the report based on the researches they did. We print here the full version. Conclusion According the data received from the literary and questionnaire sources the Crimea peninsular is not the historical habitat of Chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra L. 1758). The results of the researches didn't confirm the approval that Chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra L. 1758) had dwell Crimea before. The following conclusions concerning the acclimatization of Chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra L. 1758) on the territory of the Crimea peninsular made on the base of the modern explorations. They are: 1. The mountain ridges of the Crimean Mountains, located on the territory of the Natural Reserve, were examined in the period form 28th to 30th of May, 2019. They were checked by the following characteristics: food supply, interspecific trophic competition, the availability of places where you can hide from predators. On 28th of May,2019 they explored the mountain Malay Chuchel, Nikitskay and Yyltinskay Yaylas. The distance of the route was 91.2 km. The pastures on the mountains slopes are eaten by the ungulates which habitat there and the food supply isn’t enough for the new species. The population density of ungulates which reside in Yyltinskay Yayla is less than on the mountain’s slopes but there are not places where chamois can shelter from the predators especially from the stray dogs. Protective conditions are not well. The herbage in Nikitskay yayla is better than in other places and there are some natural rocks which can protects animals from dogs and wolves. That place can suit for the small population of chamois. On 29th of May,2019 the officers checked the western and southern slopes of the ridge Chatyrdag yayla with the top Eklizi-Burun. They trekked about 14 km and found lots of places where animals can shelter. There were many rocks and ledges. The natural competitors of chamois in that place are deer, roes and boars. There are enough food but only for a small group of chamois. The ridge Babugan Yayla has the most tough condition for the habitat of these ungulate in winter. The predators, which habitat there, are dogs, wolves, foxes and raccoon dog. Thus, after examining of all slopes the most suitable are Nikitsky Yayla, the southern and western slopes of the Chatyrdag Yayla ridge with the top of Eklizi-Burun. 2. The acclimatization process has much influence the well-established climatic and environmental conditions in the territory and we must realize that the resettlement of animals which have never habitat in Crimea before could cause great damage to the biocenosis of the Peninsula. The new species will add extra load on the forage base which is barely enough for the existed species. The specialists consulted with the scientists from the Tavrida national University and Crimean agrotechnological University. The scientific community is against the importation of chamois to the peninsular because this species will ruin the existed ego-systems and biocenoses. The multi-directional positions of the scientific community, ecological and state organizations can be the reason of negative situations and conflicts. Given the above, we can conclude that the acclimatization of Chamois on the Crimea peninsular is inexpedient”. The Club management analyzed the report of the specialists and the expert opinion of the zoologist Dylitsky and came to the conclusion that the project which looked very perspective doesn’t’ have sufficient grounds for implementation now or in the future. The CMH doesn’t seek to implement all its’ ideas if they aren’t supported by the Science. We know the cases when people, leaded by their own desires, made the illegal introduction of the alien species and it came to the dramatic ecological crisis if some regions. The CMH rejected such practice and implement the plans in accordance with the principle of " Do not harm”. That was the reason why we ordered the scientific research of this idea perspectives. We took into account all negative estimations and the project won’t be realized. But our readers know that it’s not the only projected under the auspices of our Club and we will keep you informed.

The New Year Party was traditionally organized in December in the yacht restaurant Chaika. My fellow Sergey Mazurkevich with whom we seated at the table was awarded by the Russian Mountain Hunter Cup. I suggested to fill the ladle by Champaign and everyone had to drink from it to the winner. The sparkling wine symbolized all sweat which he shed in the mountains while had got thirteen trophies. When it was my turn to drink from the ladle I thought to myself, If I could take the missing quantity of trophies in a one year. After coming home I made the list and counted how much trophies I needed to finish the list. If I wanted to win the award I had to get 10 trophies! It was too ambitious goal. I’d been in Kamchatka twice and didn’t even see the sign of sheep. That experience didn’t’ t inspire optimism. Because if I wanted to achieve the goal I had to bag 6 kinds of snow sheep not counting the other ones species. But as they say, the eyes fear, the hands do or another variant - no harm in trying. My plan was to get six trophies in 2018: Kamchatka, Koryak, Chukotka and Yakutia Snow Sheep plus Sayan Ibex and Dagestan Tur. If I didn’t do it in the one year I would continue the next. I could implement the plan, not in one but in two years. And it hit off… I was training hard, went to the swimming pool twice a week, ran on the treadmill with 40 degree lift angle. I’d bought all necessary equipment which didn’t have and made the schedule of flights. Thank you very much to the Aeroflot team, everything was organized on the high level. Kamchatka Snow Sheep I was planning the trip to Kamchatka when encountered the problem which was called “ The World Football Cup in Russia”. Most of the airports in Russia had been closed for weapons movements. As one of my friend said, it didn’t bode well. But I had no choice. The only way which I could use was to fly through Novosibirsk. Fortunately there was the direct flight from Minsk to that town but I had to wait the connection flight to Petropavlovsk Kamchatsky for one more day   but it was the little thing. Before the flight I've recived the confirmation from the aviation security of the Novosibirsk that could fly with my weapon. After arriving to the peninsula I'd need to fly further to Palana. The problem was that there were not every day flights to that remote place and I'd spend three days waiting. But there's nothing to do we’d have to wait. I was going to hunt there for Koryak and Kamchatka Snow Sheep and had time limits. Thus, the adventure had started. The flight Minsk- Novosibirsk- Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky was according the plan. I received the luggage, the gun. Suddenly when I was ready to leave the airport, I’d heard thee announcement on the loudspeaker that the flight to Palana was delayed till 3 pm, though it had to leave in an hour before our arrival to Kamchatka. It was the good sign. I could save three days and ran to the tickets office without hesitation. -Do you have tickets to Palana? - Yes, we have. But there are some problems with the plane. We are not sure if it can fly today. I didn’t care about those problems, called to the local outfitter, got his answer that we could fly earlier and changed the ticket. Then there were several moments which reminded me our Soviet Past. I’ve heard about it before but you will never understand or feel it until you find yourself in this situation. All passengers loaded their luggage to the plane by themselves! I’d hardly believe that it could be so. It was good that the locals knew the process and everything was done very fast in the routine way without any protests. The plane Yak-40 was elder than I but I knew those unkillable Soviet technics. Then we got into air pits several times while flew above the snow-capped mountains. The local outfitter met me at the airport and the ATV’s driver Michail, who happened to be my countryman, agreed to drive to the mountains immediately. It was evening when we arrived to Victor’s base. I saw lots of bears while we were driving and I made video with one of them from twenty meters distance. I has to note that it’s not really dangerous to make such videos when you are sitting on the ATV, which is like a tank. Next morning the Koryaks Anton, Viktor and Denis rode by horses to set the mountain camp. I spent that day having rest and checking/testing the rifle and wasn’t bored. The huge female bear with cubs passed near the camp and the big male followed them in a while. Viktor and Denis came back at the lunch time while Anton stayed in the mountains. His goal was to make the monitoring of the surroundings. We also packed all things, saddled horses and rode to the Base camp. All the way to the place I confronted with my horse Mashka. First time, she fell in the swamp and I flew upside down. Then Mashka noticed it and used this trick from time to time testing me. She could stopped on the dry road and kneeled down checking what I’d do. I had to show who was the master, she understood and took it. In the late evening we arrived to the place. The guys made everything in the best way we eat dinner and went to sleep. It was 6.30 am when we left the camp and started to climb under the cover of low hanging clouds. But suddenly the sky cleaned, all clouds lifted and the sun shined. The picturesque views appeared all around us. Almost immediately we detected the group of sheep in one km from us. Anton, our guide, suggested to come to the stone scree where the sheep would come later. Viktor stayed on the place to monitor the animals and to coordinate our movements be radio. We reached the needed place and waited. The minutes dragged painfully long but my doubts about the wisdom of that actions rose each second. Finally our patience was exhausted and we decided to go forward to the animals. The local mountains elves- pikas started to whistle from different sides. There was the full orchestra of them when we reached the big stone. We looked out very carefully and spotted a small bighorn beneath us. Anton connected with Viktor who told that there was the bigger one but it stood above us. We waited for while the second male would appear over the ridge. The distance was 300 meters. Probably it heard the whistle of pikas or smelt something but it began to move up. Being in despair I shot to the running goal and missed it. But there was a silver lining because suddenly the sheep stopped. Probable the shot echo confused it. It froze and began to listen. I measured the distance - 386 meters, made the correction, spin the reels on the scope and fired. We all heard the characteristic slap. It fell like a log into the gorge. The trophy Number 1 was taken! Kamchatka Snow Sheep The flight back to Petropavlovsk was in time. In a day my friend from Ukraine Jury with his grandson Egor arrived there. We all were going to drive by bus to the village Maysky and the by chopper to the Storozh River. Thus it happened and we could even set the camp before the darkness. In the first hunting day I saw four bears, one of them even came to 15 meters to my guide Vladimir. But he was so keen in examining the surroundings that I had to whistle to attract the attention the guide and the bear. When the wild guest understood that there were two humans against it, took the decision to leave and we went back to the camp with empty hands but without any problems. Next morning we decided to go to the Damn Nose, the place where Sergey Volochkov got the good sheep in the last year. My guide was sure that we’d find animals there. At first we climbed the slope then went down to the river and crossed it. I found the bear’s bed near the huge stone and a fresh pile of dung. None of us felt comfortable. We tried to hike making as much noise as it was possible. We talked loudly and stamped feet. Then we went up once again. 200 vertical meters and it wasn’t the easy exercise but at last we reached the glade- which was the home of pikas. They immediately let us knew that we were the uninvited guests. The next part of the way was the rise to the lonely rocks, my guide called them Mates, but I wasn’t sure that it was the official name. We'd done it and decided to drink tea which took with us. It was cold, the weather changed from rain to wind every fifteen minutes but we had to move further. In two hundred meters Volodya sat down and send me the signal. I saw the clear silhouette of the sheep which stood on Kirin, so the Koryaks called the ridge. The distance was 1100 meters. We relocated to the next slope and began to rise. The sheep was grazing on the slope moving from us. Volodya and I waited for a while and started to follow it. We roamed only when it couldn't see us. It appeared once again and we fell down like a log. It seemed as if it noticed something because looked to our side from time to time. The distance was 700 meters. I wished it was closer. That distance was exorbitant for the shot with the factory cartridge. Twenty minutes we were lying and waited when it’d hide behind the horizon than jumped up and ran after it. Suddenly the next bighorn appeared, we fell as if on cue and the fog covered us. Was it good or not? The name of the place was the Damn Nose and the name justified itself. All those actions took place on the height 2000 masl. It was dangerous to move with zero visibility but we hadn’t time to wait. Nobody was sure that the mountains would clear but we had to go down and marked the control points in the GPS in any case. But the fog lifted! We judged that the animals could be in a nearby valley and went there. Volodya suggested to make a stop and make the saltlick because took 5 kg of salt for those purpose. Soon the wind began to catch up with the clouds, spun in the rhythm of the waltz. We had to move faster if want to detect the sheep earlier than the fog would cover the slope. And Voloday found them and we all laid down once again to the ground. There were two adults and a young male below us in 175 meters. The youngest one watched to our side and obscured the old one. I needed to fire or they would leave. The first one made a step aside, the angle-30 degrees. I couldn’t take the comfortable position and decided to fire from knees. The Shot! The bighorn fell and suddenly nine of them appeared from behind the slope. O my God! We didn’t see them. They gathered into the group and didn’t know where to run. I pulled out the camera and began to make video. So they stood for a moment and slowly moved away. Then we made pictures and cut meat in "the very comfortable" conditions: rain and hail. It was really cold but we didn’t notice it and I was happy! In 2016 I visited Kamchatka two times. In the first visit I couldn’t even fly to the mountains. It was rain during all ten days and not the single chance to fly. At the second time I hunted in the Deep Cleft and didn’t see any male during 12 days. Each morning we climbed to the mountains and hiked not less than 10 km per day. And the last third attempt was successful. I got two sheep and one of them (Kamchatka Snow Sheep) got the Gold level. Thank you very much to the outfitter and very experienced guide Vladimir for that interesting hunt! Chukotka. The Koryak Snow Sheep. Few days of rest at home and next flight to Chukotka. After meeting at the airport we used the ferry to get to Anadyr. I was surprised by the capital of that Cold province of Russian. The town was like from fairy tale. The colorful houses and buildings, built on the stilts in that the edge of the permafrost, looked like toys. The sight of them cannot but please the eye even in the most severe cold. I was really lucky with weather. There were fogs and rains but it was utter nonsense for those region. The helicopter waited for us outside the town. The sky was overcast by clouds but the pilot told me that he knew what to do. Telling the truth I had some doubt but in twenty minutes we happened in the clear sky. The sun was shining and tundra shimmered with bright colors, as if it had been purposely dressed in festive attire. It was the paradise for the photographers. You don’t need to choose the angle and a perspective just push the button. The first day in the Base camp we had rest and tested guns. I can’t say anything interesting about it. Next day we moved to the mountains. It took us long time to cross the ridge, we saw several females with babies and wild reindeers. The guided told me that they had seen males a week ago but we didn’t’ meet anyone. My mood began to fall the memories about failures in Kamchatka came flooding back. After the lunch my guide Mikhail offered to check the next slope where he saw males last time and we found three of them there! How didn’t we notice them in the first time? The guides knew the territory pretty well and suggested to make the corral hunting. Timofey would pushed animals from that place while Mikhail and I wait for them on the ridge. They had to go there according the plan. An hour passed. The place, which we chose for the ambush, wasn’t comfortable. It was surrounded by thick bushes and I got nervous. Mikhail noticed my condition and said to be patient because the sheep would approach very close. And so they came. The distance was 100 meters. They crossed the pass and moved slowly to our side. -              Which one I must shoot? -              The first one. Seventy meters! The shot! I had the feeling that bullet hit to the stone and I shot once again. Stone! What an armor-piercing sheep was it! I was afraid that it’d leave behind the ridge and decided to fire the second one. The guided told me that they had one more license and the season would be closed soon. I made the shot and noticed that the first and the second one fell together. O my God! By the way the second one had bigger horns. Chukotka left a lasting impression and I want to come there back. Hope I can do it. Magadan. Kolyma Snow Sheep. I flew back home and checked my list. If I want to win the Cup, I need to bag Kolyma and Okhotsk Snow Sheep, Altay Ibex and West Caucasian Chamois in KCR. I bag the last trophy in Abkhazia but needed one more just for the safety sake, and decided to increase the rates! The process went, I had not to do it slow down. I found free time in my calendar and began to call to the local outfitters and tried to arrange the hunts. Thanks to my club fellows who gave me contacts. The first guy I remembers was Alexander Klazyn from Magadan. He is my countryman and i'd talked with him about the hunt before. It didn’t’ take us much time to arrange all questions and soon I flew there. After arrival to Magadan we sailed by boat to the hunting area. I had to confess that wished to leave that boat as soon as possible because didn’t trust the sea transport. I’m the man of land and hate when the deck moves underfoot and you move automatically. The rock looked very impregnable from the sea but it took us just two hours and we climbed 500 meters. We watched the group of young females while rising, they looked at us but were not afraid at all, as if they saw human beings at the first time. I couldn’t stop wondering the modesty of the feed base. The grass was almost not visible, there was only the cedar woods as far as the eye could see. If I hadn't seen the females sheep before I could think what we were doing there? Then we noticed the lonely male which stood in some distance and looked like entranced. It was the lunch time and the sun was already hot. My guide Vasily invited to have rest and to drink some tea. He promised that we met sheep after the breather and was right. First we detected two young males and then spotted the Big one which stood above us! It was huge, athletic “Man”. We didn’t’ need to estimate its horns. It was the real male! The shooting distance was 225 meters with the angle 90 degrees. I fired and missed, as I thought at the first moment but noticed the blood which fountained from its neck. I hit it but wanted to make the second shot just for safety but Vasily stopped me. We dropped backpacks and started to prepare for the climb by the vertical wall. It could be high and dangerous. But the miracle happened. The sheep made just one step and fell from the rock. My breath caught in my throat because I thought that it’d damage the horns. I come close with the sinking heart and found that they were intact! The right one was fine but the left one didn’t’ t have the tip but the male lost it not now. I got really nice 10-11 years old trophy! The Kolyma Snow Sheep is taken! To be continued.

Dear Club members. We all have experience of taking part in hunting trips, organized on the different levels. We know positive and negative examples of the local outfitter’s work. Our proposal is to elaborate standards of the hunting trips organization which we are going to promote among our partners. We will be grateful for your suggestions. Edward Bendersky The important things which have to be known while organizing the hunting tripQuestions which concern the necessary documentsThe outfitter has to receive all permits for getting the wildlife products. All paperwork have to be filled in the names of hunters or the PH who will accompanied him.If the hunt takes place in the border zone, the outfitters is obliged to get the appropriate permits which allow to stay there from the local border service. The hunter has to provide the outfitter with the original hunting ticket and gun’s permit. It’s has to be done for handling the docs. Basic CampUsually tent camps are used as the base camp during the hunting expedition in the mountains. But there are some stationary ones too. The next recommendations have to be followed if you set the tent camp:- The preferable accommodation is one or maximum two hunters in the tent.- The most suitable variant of the tent is the one made be the Canadian company Cabelas. The produces noticed that the tent is good for the accommodation of 4 persons but according to our experience it’s ideal for one.- Better to use cots. There are several kinds of them which are compact and easy to transport- These kinds of tents has the extra space where the hunters can keep their boots- There has to be a spacious tent or double tent which can be used as a kitchen and a Wardroom. They have to be spacious with the high ridge. It’d be better if they have square or rectangle forms.- There has to be the collapsible dinner table for the team - It’s obligatory to have stove for cooking and heating during the winters, cold season.Kitchen- The cook has to have health inspection before the trip. He also has to comply with hygiene measures and to keep everything clean.- There has to be extra table for cooking in the kitchen.- The kitchen area is equipped with the two-burner gas stove. The usual usage of gas cylinders is about 4-5 per days.- The kitchen equipment includes all necessary tableware, plates of different sizes, salad bowls, plus several pans and a dripping pan for cooking and frying and a kettle. - The cook has to be responsible for making the list of products which has to include: potato, onions, rice, pasta, fish and meat teens, salt, pepper, sugar, vegetable oil, eggs, sausage and meat semis, pickles, seasonal fruit and vegetables, greenery.- The cook has to buy bread, cookies, candies, jam, tea, coffee- Better to have variants of lighting: from generator or by the energy efficient fixtures- It’s good to have hand washing liquid with bactericidal properties in the camp- Paper towels- Disposable paper or cellophane tablecloths - Large strong bags for garbage - Water heating tanks- Cutting boards and a knife set- Matches or lighters- Grills for cooking meat or fish - Dishwashing liquid- Disposable cloth or sponge Equipment for the Base Camp- Gas generator for lighting and charging the batteries.- Separate toilet with toilet paper- Shower with special field equipment - Washbasin near the kitchen and in the camp with liquid- Hatchet and sapper shovel, an regular or gasoline saw- Medicine kit. Better to buy- Set of ropes- Salt for preliminary skin preparation- A tank for skull boilingNumber of Staff in the CampThe number of staff members depends on the number of hunters. We recommend to have one or better two PH / guides per hunter. There have to be a professional cook, taxidermist or the very experienced guide who will make the preliminary processing of trophy’s skins. The camp team has to be polite and attentive to the hunters and their attendants. Alcohol has to be forbidden in the camp. They mustn’t drink alone or with guests. The guides have to know how to work with clients as the PH.The Main Guide’s skills- To know the rules and hunting terms- To know how to fill all necessary papers- Good knowledge of the hunting area- To be experienced and to have knowledge about the hunting game: age and sex differences, behavior, ability to visually assess the size of the trophy. The distinctive feature of the Snow Sheep adults is the horn’s curl. It has to be near its eye.- The lifestyle and habits of animals depend on the time and the season. The knowledge of all of these nuances can help to choose the optimal way of hunting. How to approach and where to look of the trophy. It’s important to know that animals have great nose and the guide has to find such way of approachin when the wind blows from the animals. It’s known that wind blows from down to up during the day hours and revers the direction in the evenings. It happens because of the air heating. So it means that in a day hours it’s better to come to the animals from above. They have rest or pasture at that time and then move up in the evening. If you detect the trophy in the morning or a day you need to think over the ways of approaching from the leeward. If the animals don’t notice the hunter, you have plenty of time.- The guide has to know safety measures and be able to make first aid- The guide mustn’t leave the hunter alone in the mountains or far from the camp.- The guide has to adjust his pace of walking and climbing like the hunter, and not Vice versa. Too fast climbing will quickly tire the hunter, which can lead to negative consequences- The guide has to be able to remove the skin from the whole trophy or one the breast, so-called cape or just skull with horns. It’s very important to ask the hunter about it before. - The guide has to make the professional pictures of the hunter with the trophy. He stows the animals in the natural pose, cleans blood and cuts grass before the trophy. It’s better to make pictures when there is a piece of sky on the background it makes the photo more interesting and vivid. The hunter has to be posed with the back to the sun and none of shadows must be in shot. Try to make the picture with the whole animal body not just several parts. Nothing should obscure the animal and the hunter. There shouldn’t be chiaroscuro on the face of the hunter. It’s better to make lots for pictures with different sides and angles to choose the best one later. Don’t allow to make shot from above. The best pictures are from below or keep the camera on the same level with the trophy. The primary processing has to be done by the taxidermist or the very experienced guide- They have to accurately remove the skin from the skull. There are lots of small parts near its eyes and lips which can be easily damaged. They need to use sharp, small knifes.- To remove all meat from the skull and the lower jaw if the hunter asks- They need to boil the skull and take off the horn for further processing- To cut down unnecessary parts of the skull. But the guide has to know all variants how to make it and better to consult with the experienced taxidermists- To clean the skin by cutting all fat and meat- To salt and preserve the skin- The skull has to be wrapped in dense cardboard or cellophane to preserve small parts and bones of the skull before the transportation.

All hunting fans waited for this Show because it’s the most interesting one. This the only exhibition where you can find everything what relates to hunting including arms, equipment and hunting tours. This Show is the best in our country but we can’t compare it with the international ones and people who try to do it, haven’t visited the Shows abroad. Our level isn’t the same like in other countries. There are some reasons why the number of international exhibitors, who present the foreign weapon, reduce from year to year. But our market is still interesting for them and they try to follow the events.On Saturday I had the meeting with Italian gunsmiths, who arrived to the Show just for the one day. The sanctions complicated a lot their matters with Russian clients. They noticed that booth payment is too high for the Show of such level. And I want to add that the price for the entrance ticket is also high.But in spite of it, there were crowds of people there in the weekend.The Exhibition organizers became the company “Kolchuga” and “ Russian Hunting”. 24000K people visited the Show during four days. Fifty-eight international companies from fifteen countries took part in the Show and 247 domestic firms. It’s a pity the producers of Russian Firearms were presented very poor. There weren’t the representatives of the “Kalashnikov” Concern and IMZ. I could hardly find the weapon made by “Orsis” and “Central design research Bureau of sports and hunting arms” companies. Vyatka-Polyansk gunsmiths with their usual assortment reminded me about the crisis in this sphere of production in our country. It has been a usual practice after the First World War to alter army weapon into the hunting arms but it isn't actual now and nobody needs it. The Austrian gunsmiths - Johann Fanzoj, Peter Hofer, Gerhard Fuchs, trading house "Springer heirs". , who make individual guns, were like a light in the darkness. There was several European grands too, like Beretta. Our bladed weapon was presented wide. We successfully develop in this destination. The foreign companies also showed very interesting collections. Also you can find there self-defense weapons, ammunition for various arms, sights of different types of devices, binoculars, rangefinders, weapons care products.The separate section was devoted to the hunting and outdoor equipment. Hunters could communicated with the representatives of the hunting outfitters and book trips. The main decorations of such Shows are works of the taxidermy studios. The members of the project “Culture of hunting life” launched their works on the booth of our magazine. They attracted visitor’s attentions and most of them stopped and discussed this very interesting theme.

Рози Куни 1,2, Кертис Фриз 1, Марко Пани 1, Вернон Бут 1, Холли Дублин 1,3,4, Дилис Роу 1,5, Дэвид Мэллон 1,6, Майкл Найт 1, Ричард Эмсли 7, Шейн Махони 1,8, Буяна Чимедорж 9 Группа специалистов по устойчивому использованию дикой природы и жизнеобеспечению сельских общин (ГСУИЖ [SULi]) Комиссии по выживанию видов (КВВ) и Комиссии по экологической, экономической и социальной политике (КЭЭСП) Международного союза охраны природы и природных ресурсов (МСОП) 1 Университет Нового Южного Уэльса, Австралия 2 Группа специалистов МСОП по африканским слонам 3 Региональное бюро МСОП по Восточной и Южной Африке 4 Международный институт окружающей среды и развития (IIED) 5 Группа специалистов МСОП по антилопам 6 Группа специалистов МСОП по африканскому носорогу 7 Компания Conservation Visions Inc. (Канада) 8 Монгольский программный офис Всемирного фонда дикой природы 9   Публикация представляет собой перевод статьи, опубликованной в международном журнале лесного хозяйства и лесной промышленности «Unasylva», издаваемом Продовольственной и сельскохозяйственной организацией ООН (ФАО; Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO): Cooney, R.; Freese, C.; Dublin, H.; Roe, D.; Mallon, D.; Knight, M.; Emslie, R.; Pani, M.; Booth, V.; Mahoney, S.; Buyanaa, C. The baby and the bathwater: trophy hunting, conservation and rural livelihoods. Unasylva: An international journal of forestry and forest industries. 2017. Vol. 68. No. 249. P. 3-16. Перевод выполнен И.В.Долговым при финансовой поддержке Клуба горных охотников (Москва). Редактор перевода: С.П.Матвейчук (ВНИИОЗ, Киров). Существуют убедительные доказательства того, что вызывающая полемику практика трофейной охоты может приносить положительные результаты, как для сохранения дикой природы, так и для местного населения. [Ключевые слова: трофейная охота; охота; сохранение диких животных; виды, находящиеся под угрозой исчезновения; Красный список; общинный менеджмент диких животных; устойчивое охотпользование.]  THE BABY AND THE BATHWATER: TROPHY HUNTING, CONSERVATION AND RURAL LIVELIHOODS There is substantial evidence that the controversial practice of trophy hunting can produce positive outcomes for wildlife conservation and local people. [Keywords: trophy hunting; hunting; wildlife conservation; threatened species; Red List; community-based wildlife management; sustainable hunting.] Трофейная охота является предметом бурных дебатов, для которых характерны поляризация позиций сторон, глубокие разногласия и выражение серьезной озабоченности по поводу некоторых методов охоты, их этических основ и последствий. Следствием этих дебатов стали предпринимаемые на различных уровнях шаги, направленные на прекращение или ограничение трофейной охоты, в том числе путем введения запрета на перевозку или импорт охотничьих трофеев. Так, например, в марте 2016 года группа депутатов Европарламента призвала (безуспешно) подписать манифест, призывающий рассмотреть возможность ограничения импорта любых охотничьих трофеев в Европейский Союз. Хотя во многих странах существует острая необходимость в реформировании менеджмента охоты и методов ее проведения, призывы к введению полного запрета на трофейную охоту дают основания предположить, что подобные меры в равной степени пагубны для сохранения; такие призывы часто делаются на основе недостаточной информации и неверных предположений. В этой статье на примерах из различных регионов планеты мы объясняем, как при условии должного регулирования трофейная охота может играть позитивную роль в поддержке сохранения, а также прав и средств к существованию местных общин. Также мы обращаем особое внимание на вероятные последствия полного запрета трофейной охоты и приводим доводы в пользу более сбалансированного подхода к давно назревшей реформе. Что такое трофейная охота? Здесь мы определяем трофейную охоту как охоту, рекреационную в своей основе (то есть, это не «охота для пропитания», которая является составной частью стратегии обеспечения средств к существованию), нацеленную на животных с определенными желаемыми характеристиками (такими, например, как крупный размер или наличие рогов). Трофейная охота обычно подразумевает внесение платы иностранным или местным охотником за осуществление охоты (часто с сопровождением [guided]) одним или несколькими лицами на определенный вид с желаемыми характеристиками особи. Охотник, как правило, сохраняет рога, бивни, клыки, голову, зубы или другие части тела животного в качестве сувенира или «трофея», а мясо добытого животного используется охотником или членами местной общины в качестве пищи. Трофейная охота проводится в большинстве стран Европы, в Соединенных Штатах Америки, Канаде, Мексике, в некоторых странах Восточной, Центральной и Южной Азии, примерно в половине из 54 стран Африки (Booth, Chardonnet, 2015), в нескольких странах Центральной и Восточной Европы, в Южной Америке, Австралии и Новой Зеландии. Отметим, однако, что термин «трофейная охота» может вводить в заблуждение. Охота принимает разные формы, и мотивация охотников также может быть различной. Для некоторых охотников получение трофеев может быть второстепенным или побочным мотивом. Так, например, охотники могут быть мотивированы: перспективой получения продуктов питания; управлением популяцией в целях сохранения конкретных видов растений или животных или обеспечением восстановления лесов; возможностью побыть на природе; сохранением культурно значимых или традиционных умений и практик охоты; общением с семьей и друзьями. Во многих случаях трофейная охота в значительной степени пересекается с охотой ради мяса. Например, многие охотники на оленей могут изначально охотиться на животных с большими рогами, однако, не найдя трофейного экземпляра, выбирают своей целью обычного оленя, то есть охотятся уже ради получения мяса. Объектами трофейной охоты являются представители самых разнообразных видов, от широко распространённых до находящихся под угрозой исчезновения. Большинство из этих видов аборигенные, однако есть и интродуцированные (например, олени в Австралии и Новой Зеландии). На долю интродуцированных видов приходится весьма небольшая доля трофейных охот, и проблемы сохранения, вызываемые такой охотой, отличаются от проблем, связанных с охотой на аборигенные виды, поэтому данный вопрос не обсуждается далее в нашей статье. В средствах массовой информации и со стороны представителей власти прослеживается тенденция отождествлять «консервированную» [«canned»] охоту – охоту в вольерах (из которых невозможно убежать) на выращенных, как правило, в неволе животных или на недавно выпущенных животных, не знакомых с местностью, – с подлинной трофейной охотой. Здесь необходимо отметить, что «консервированная» охота ограничена в своем применении (проводится в основном на львов в Южной Африке) и осуждается крупными профессиональными охотничьими организациями. Тем не менее, такая тенденция создает ряд различных проблем для тех, кто связан с охотой на свободноживущих животных и не обсуждается далее в данной статье.   Трофейную охоту также часто (и ошибочно) связывают с браконьерской охотой для организованной в международном масштабе незаконной торговли дикими животными, которая приводит к почти полному истреблению многих видов, включая африканских слонов (Loxodonta africana) и африканских носорогов (черных, Diceros bicornis, и белых, Ceratotherium simum). Трофейная охота, как правило осуществляется в качестве законной регулируемой деятельности в рамках программ осуществляемых правительственными агентствами по охране дикой природы, менеджерами охраняемых природных территорий, органами коренных или местных общин, частными землевладельцами, природоохранными организациями и организациями, занимающимися вопросами развития, тогда как браконьерская охота с целью незаконной торговли дикими животными незаконна и нерегулируема по определению. Такая незаконная охота, как правило, наносит гораздо больший ущерб как по масштабам, так и по демографическим последствиям, так как при этом часто гибнут самки, участвующие в размножении, и детеныши (телята). Например, в Африке в 2015 году браконьеры убили 1342 африканских носорога (обоих видов – черного и белого), что почти в 20 раз больше, чем те 69 особей, которые были добыты в этом же году в ходе законных трофейных охот (Emslie et al., 2016). При этом все доходы от браконьерства с целью незаконной торговли дикими животными достаются преступникам, тогда как доходы от законной охоты используются в ряде случаев для финансирования деятельности правоохранительных органов или предоставления материальной помощи местным общинам в качестве противодействия стимулам, поощряющим браконьерство (см., например, разбор конкретных Примеров 1, 2 и 4 в этой статье). В некоторых странах все решения об охотничьих квотах, видах охотничьих животных и районах охоты принимаются государственными агентствами по дикой природе (например, в Соединенных Штатах Америки, Пример 3). Однако во многих системах государственного управления в сфере трофейной охоты в решении этих вопросов наряду с государственными органами власти участвуют местные землевладельцы и представители общинных организаций, которые иногда являются ключевыми лицами, принимающими решения, по крайней мере в отношении некоторых видов диких животных (например, в общинных заповедниках Намибии, см. Пример 5). Это отнюдь не означает, что незаконная деятельность не имеет места; она присутствует в той или иной степени точно так же, как и в большинстве других секторов экономики. Многочисленные разрозненные сообщения свидетельствуют о недостатках в механизме регулирования и о незаконной деятельности в сфере трофейной охоты в некоторых странах, иногда в очень серьезных масштабах, а иногда и с участием коррумпированных чиновников. Такие виды деятельности включают охоту сверх установленных квот или в запрещенных местах, добычу животных, запрещенных к изъятию, и «псевдоохоту» (Пример 1). Цены на трофейную охоту могут варьировать в самых широких пределах – от нескольких сотен до сотен тысяч долларов США; в глобальном масштабе с трофейной охотой связаны значительные денежные поступления из развитых стран в развивающиеся (Booth, 2009; Saayman, Van der Merwe, Rossouw, 2011). В развивающихся странах землевладельцы и управляющие земельной собственностью нередко заключают договоры с охотничьими дилерами (аутфитерами [«concessionaires»]), предметом которых является предоставление на определенных условиях прав на охоту на конкретных землях или их аренда (концессия). Условия могут включать (а в некоторых странах и должны включать, если речь идет о землях, принадлежащих государству) обязательства по проведению мероприятий по развитию местных общин и борьбе с браконьерством. Аутфитер, в свою очередь, заключает договоры с иностранными клиентами и непосредственно организует трофейные охоты. Сборы, выплачиваемые охотниками, обычно включают в себя: 1. Расходы аутфитера (в случае необходимости); 2. Платежи местному юридическому лицу (например, общине, частному или государственному землевладельцу или управляющему земельной собственностью), с которым аутфитер заключил договор; 3. Официальные платежи различного типа, установленные государством (например, лицензии и сборы), которые обычно помогают финансировать деятельность по управлению и охране дикой природы. Как правило, в развивающихся странах 50-90 % чистого дохода (без учета расходов аутфитера) распределяется между местными организациями, а остальная часть поступает в государственные органы. Выгоды для местных общин могут быть как максимально возможными, так и практически нулевыми. Мясо добытых животных может высоко цениться в стране пребывания, и его часто дарят или продают членам местной общины (Naidoo et al., 2016). В большинстве стран Европы и Северной Америки часть доходов от трофейных охот поступает, как правило, в распоряжение правительственных органов по охране дикой природы для финансирования деятельности по ее рациональному использованию и сохранению. Как трофейная охота влияет на сохранение?  В зависимости от национальной специфики проведение трофейной охоты характеризуется высокой вариативностью таких сопутствующих факторов, как управление, менеджмент и экологическая обстановка. Соответственно, воздействие трофейной охоты на сохранение диких животных также сильно варьирует: от негативного до нейтрального и позитивного. Отсутствие или дефицит достоверных данных о степени влиянии трофейной охоты на сохранение в зависимости от тех или иных сопутствующих факторов не позволяет в полной мере оценить суммарный эффект. Негативное влияние на сохранение оказывает ненадлежащим образом управляемая и регулируемая трофейная охота, что может выражаться в: чрезмерной охотничьей нагрузке (перепромысле); искусственном отборе редких или гипертрофированных признаков (например, аномальных цветовых морф); генетическом или фенотипическом воздействии (таким, как уменьшение размера рогов); интродукции видов или подвидов за пределами их естественных ареалов (в том числе в других странах); истреблении хищников. Однако очевидно, что при эффективном управлении и менеджменте трофейная охота может оказывать и оказывает положительное влияние на сохранение (как показано на шести примерах в этой статье). Наибольшую угрозу для популяций наземных видов диких животных представляет уничтожение среды обитания, ее фрагментация и деградация, вызванные главным образом расширением экономической деятельности человека (Mace et al., 2005). Кроме того, в качестве основных угроз для сохранения следует упомянуть браконьерство ради мяса и с целью незаконной торговли дикими животными, а также конкуренцию диких животных с домашним скотом. Во многих регионах планеты с богатым биологическим разнообразием растет спрос на продовольствие и земли под освоение, идет погоня за все большей прибылью, что усугубляет угрозы для дикой природы и указывает на безотлагательную необходимость поиска эффективных стимулов для ее сохранения. Организованная надлежащим образом трофейная охота может способствовать сохранению, поскольку она увеличивает ценность диких животных и местообитаний, от которых они зависят, обеспечивая чрезвычайно важные выгоды и создавая тем самым соответствующие стимулы и условия для устойчивого природопользования. Исходя из этого, при разработке программ трофейной охоты необходимо предусмотреть следующие аспекты: • Трофейная охота должна стимулировать землевладельцев (будь то государство, частное лицо или община) сохранять или восстанавливать ресурсы дикой природы на своей земле. Выгоды, получаемые землевладельцами от охоты на своих землях, могут сделать использование дикой природы привлекательным вариантом землепользования, побуждая владельцев земли сохранять или восстанавливать популяции диких животных и среду их обитания, освобождать свои земли от домашнего скота, инвестировать в мониторинг и управление, а также проводить мероприятия по борьбе с браконьерством. Например, в Мексике, Намибии, Пакистане, Южной Африке, Соединенных Штатах Америки и Зимбабве политика, позволяющая землевладельцам извлекать выгоду из устойчивого использования дикой природы, привела к полному или частичному освобождению больших по площади территорий от домашнего скота и возвращению на эти земли диких животных (Примеры 1 и 3-6). Эти льготы распространяются как на государственные охраняемые природные территории, так и на частные земли. В странах Африки к югу от Сахары земли, переданные в концессию для организации охотничьих угодий, сопоставимы по площади с национальными парками или выше (Lindsey, Roulet and Romañach, 2007), и такие земли нередко являются частью национальной системы особо охраняемых природных территорий (ООПТ) (обычно категорий IV и VI по классификации МСОП) 1. 1 Целью ООПТ категории IV МСОП – Управляемая       природная     территория [«habitat/species management areas»] – является защита отдельных видов или местообитаний, и менеджмент отражает эти приоритеты. Целью ООПТ категории VI – Охраняемая территория с устойчивым использованием природных ресурсов [«protected areas with sustainable use of natural resources»] – является сохранение экосистем и местообитаний вместе со связанными с ними культурными ценностями и традиционными системами менеджмента природных ресурсов. [Приводится авторами по: Dudley, N. (ed.). Guidelines for Applying Protected Area Management Categories. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN. X, 86 p. – Примеч. ред.]. Учитывая интенсивную и все возрастающую нагрузку на земли в развивающихся странах, особенно в плане производства продовольствия, будущее этих земель и диких животных, их населяющих, представляется крайне неопределенным без выгод, присущих надлежащему менеджменту дикой природы. • Трофейная охота должна обеспечивать владельцам государственных, частных и общинных земель получение необходимых доходов для менеджмента и сохранения дикой природы, включая мероприятия по борьбе с браконьерством (см. Примеры 1-6). В большинстве регионов государственные агентства зависят (по крайней мере, частично) от доходов, которые приносит охота и которые необходимы для менеджмента дикой природы и охраняемых природных территорий. Например, государственные агентства дикой природы в США финансируются главным образом за счет охотников (как трофейных, так и практикующих другие виды рекреационной охоты) с помощью различных прямых и косвенных механизмов, включая продажу лицензий на трофейную охоту (Heffelfinger, Geist, Wishart, 2013; Mahoney, 2013). Размеры особо охраняемых природных территорий, многие из которых относятся к категориям IV и VI МСОП и включают в себя охотничьи угодья, могут значительно сократиться, если охотничьи угодья станут непригодны для использования. Частные землевладельцы в Южной Африке и Зимбабве и владельцы общинных земель в Намибии используют доходы от трофейной охоты в том числе и для того, чтобы оплачивать труд сотрудников охраны и рейнджеров, закупать необходимое оборудование и в любой иной форме обеспечивать надлежащий менеджмент и защиту дикой природы (Примеры 1 и 5). В Монголии, Пакистане и Таджикистане доходы от трофейной охоты также используются для оплаты труда местных рейнджеров, которые призваны бороться с браконьерством и улучшать среду обитания охотничьих животных (Примеры 2 и 6). Сокращению браконьерства могут способствовать патрульные подразделения, которые непосредственно организуются, финансируются и применяются организаторами трофейной охоты (Lindsey, Roulet and Romañach, 2007). • Трофейная охота должна повышать терпимость местного населения к диким животным, сокращая тем самым незаконную добычу и сглаживая конфликты между человеком и дикой природой. Присутствие диких животных влечет за собой серьезные издержки для местного населения – потерю урожая и скота, нанесение увечий и даже человеческие жертвы, причем у людей нет никаких правовых механизмов компенсации этих издержек. Поэтому браконьерство и умерщвление диких животных в качестве ответа за причиненный ущерб являются обычным делом. Это особенно характерно для Африки, где слоны и другие виды животных уничтожают посевы, а крупные дикие кошки убивают людей и домашний скот. Стимулы, предусмотренные программами трофейной охоты, и доходы от самих охот важны не только для сохранения охотничьих видов: охраняемые территории могут выполнять роль своеобразного «зонта для биоразнообразия» и способствовать сохранению неохотничьих видов диких животных. В Зимбабве, в заповедниках Саве [Savé] и Бубье [Bubye] не охотятся на африканских носорогов и гиеновидных собак (Lycaon pectus), однако доходы от трофейной охоты на другие виды способствуют их сохранению (Пример 4). На Памире, в Таджикистане, на территориях, переданных в концессию для проведения трофейной охоты на архара (Ovis ammon) и козерога (Capra ibex) отмечается более высокая плотность (по сравнению с соседними районами, где не проводится трофейная охота) находящегося под угрозой исчезновения снежного барса (Panthera uncia), что, вероятно, обусловлено более высокой численностью животных, служащих добычей для снежного барса, и более низким уровнем браконьерства (Kachel, 2014). Высокая плотность снежного барса была также отмечена в районах охоты на винторогих козлов (мархуров, Capra falconeri) (Rosen, 2014). В Йеллоустонском национальном парке, США, часть доходов от трофейной охоты на толсторога (Ovis canadensis) была направлена на выкуп земель, занятых под выпас скота, что помогло сократить количество нападений гризли (Ursus arctos) на домашний скот и принесло ощутимые выгоды находящейся под угрозой исчезновения популяции этих животных (K.Hurley, персональное сообщение, 25 февраля 2016 г.). Часто выражается беспокойство по поводу того, что трофейная охота ведет к снижению численности крупных африканских млекопитающих, таких, как слон, носорог и лев (Panthera leo). Хотя имеются свидетельство того, что в отдельных случаях неустойчивая трофейная охота (особенно на льва) способствовала сокращению популяции (например: Loveridge et al., 2007; Packer et al., 2011), она не считается основной угрозой для этих видов. В целом, трофейная охота представляет незначительную или ничтожно малую угрозу для популяций африканских диких животных (Lindsey, 2015). И в настоящее время, и в прошлом основными причинами сокращения численности крупных млекопитающих, на которых ведется трофейная охота, таких, как африканский слон, африканский буйвол, белый носорог, черный носорог, зебра (Equus zebra и E. quagga), горный баран, горный козел, толсторог, различные виды оленей и медведей, является уничтожение и деградация среды обитания, конкуренция с домашним скотом, неконтролируемая браконьерская охота ради получения мяса и с целью торговли продукцией животного происхождения (например, слоновой костью и рогами), умерщвление животных в качестве возмездия за нанесенный в конфликтах между человеком и дикими животными ущерб (Schipper et al., 2008; Ripple et al., 2015). Что касается львов, то главными причинами сокращения численности популяции являются неизбирательное умерщвление животных при защите человеческой жизни и домашнего скота, уничтожение среды обитания и истощение кормовой базы (обычно из-за браконьерства) (Bauer et al., 2015). На примерах, приведенных в этой статье, мы показываем, что надлежащим образом организуемая трофейная охота может способствовать восстановлению и защите популяций многих из перечисленных выше видов, помогать поддерживать их среду обитания. Трофейная охота, права коренных и местных общин и средства к существованию Вклад трофейной охоты в обеспечение средств к существованию коренного населения и местных общин в значительной степени зависит от региона и присущей ему специфики. Во многих случаях трофейная охота осуществляется без полноценного участия общин в принятии решений, касающихся менеджмента диких животных, без надлежащего уважения прав общин и без их согласия, а также в условиях несправедливого или плохо функционирующего механизма распределения доходов, при котором наибольшую выгоду получают организаторы охоты или государственные агентства. Однако целый ряд программ трофейной охоты характеризуется тем, что коренные народы и местные общины самостоятельно и без принуждения выбрали использование трофейной охоты в качестве способа получения стимулов и доходов для сохранения и управления дикими животными на своих землях и улучшения условий жизни (Примеры 2, 3, 5 и 6). Во многих других случаях общины имеют меньше полномочий по принятию решений в отношении трофейной охоты, но, тем не менее, получают определенную долю доходов от охоты (Lindsey et al., 2013). Общины могут получать выгоду от трофейной охоты за счет концессионных платежей или других инвестиций охотников, которые, как правило, повышают эффективность и качество общинных услуг, таких, как: инфраструктура водоснабжения; школы и поликлиники; рабочие места в качестве гидов, охранников дичи, менеджеров дикой природы (а также другие связанные с охотой рабочие места); более широкий доступ к мясу дичи. Как правило, коренные и местные общины, живущие на землях охотничьих угодий и по соседству, крайне бедны, имеют мало источников дохода и иногда не имеют других законных источников мяса. Трофейная охота на практике: примеры положительного воздействия В ходе бурных дебатов, посвященных трофейной охоте, часто делаются громкие заявления о том, что любая трофейная охота угрожает сохранению или ведет к уничтожению тех или иных видов. По этой причине, а также потому, что многие из приведенных в этой статье фактов не получили широкой известности, мы приводим здесь анализ конкретных примеров того, как трофейная охота вносит положительный вклад в поддержку сохранения, а также прав и средств к существованию местных общин. Следует отметить, что существуют также примеры неадекватных подходов к трофейной охоте, которые заслуживают аналогичного изучения, однако они, как правило, связаны с незаконной или непрозрачной деятельностью, что затрудняет получение достоверной информации. Пример 1. Носороги в Намибии и Южной Африке История охоты на носорога в Намибии и Южной Африке наглядно демонстрирует ее устойчивость с точки зрения численности популяции этих животных. С тех пор, как в Южной Африке были введены в действие программы трофейной охоты на белого носорога, его численность возросла с примерно 1800 особей в 1968 году до чуть более 18400 особей в настоящее время (Emslie et al., 2016) (рисунок 1), при этом значительное число белых носорогов были реинтродуцированы в другие страны в пределы естественных ареалов вида. После того как в конце 2004 года Конвенция о международной торговле видами дикой фауны и флоры, находящимися под угрозой исчезновения (СИТЕС) утвердила ограниченные охотничьи квоты на черного носорога, численность его популяции в Намибии и Южной Африке увеличилось на 67 %, с примерно 2300 особей в 2004 году до примерно 3900 особей на сегодняшний день (рисунок 1). По состоянию на конец 2015 года на долю Намибии и Южной Африки приходится 90 % от общей численности черного и белого носорога Африки. Рис. 1. Оценка численности белых носорогов в Южной Африке (слева) и черных носорогов в Южной Африке и Намибии (справа) в 1968 и 2005 годах, до и после начала трофейной охоты соответственно. По горизонтали – год, по вертикали – количество особей.  Охота сыграла важную роль в восстановлении популяции белого носорога, предоставив частным и общинным землевладельцам стимулы для содержания диких животных на своих землях, обеспечив получение дохода для их сохранения и защиты, а также помощь в менеджменте и содействие в восстановлении популяции. В Южной Африке ограниченная трофейная охота на носорога в сочетании с продажей живых особей и туризмом обеспечила экономические стимулы, побудившие более 300 частных землевладельцев создать общее стадо численностью примерно в 6140 голов белого носорога и 630 голов черного носорога на 49 частных или общинных земельных участках – это примерно 1,7 млн. га охраняемых земель, что сравнимо по площади с национальным парком Крюгера (Balfour, Knight and Jones, 2016; Emslie et al., 2016). Вклад трофейной охоты в расширение ареала и увеличение численности этих экзотических животных, таким образом, значителен (и возрастает). Многие частные заповедники для покрытия эксплуатационных издержек в значительной степени полагаются на трофейную охоту и продажу особей белого носорога другим заповедникам. Например, один самофинансируемый южноафриканский заповедник осуществляет управление растущей популяцией диких животных, в которую входит 195 белых носорогов, а также представители многих других видов 2. 2 Информация об этом заповеднике имеется в распоряжении Группа специалистов КВВ МСОП по африканскому носорогу (весьма авторитетный и заслуживающий доверия орган), но мы не раскрываем ее здесь, заботясь о безопасности белого носорога. Анализ данных за восемь лет показал, что за счет доходов от туризма было покрыто только около 18 % общих эксплуатационных расходов этого заповедника, основная же часть операционных издержек (63 %) была покрыта за счет доходов от трофейной охоты. Заповедник направляет все доходы, полученные от охоты на носорога, на защиту и сохранение популяции этих животных. Менеджер заповедника отметил, что недавний запрет на импорт в США трофейных львиных шкур уже привел к прекращению некоторых видов охоты, что негативно сказалось на доходах заповедника (M. Knight, R. Emslie и K. Adcock, персональное сообщение, 18 марта 2016 г.). Увеличение расходов на обеспечение безопасности, риски, обусловленные эскалацией браконьерства, и ослабление экономических стимулов привели к тревожной тенденции, которая заключается в том, что некоторые частные землевладельцы и менеджеры отказываются от содержания на своих землях носорога; сохранение этой тенденции может угрожать расширению ареала и численности популяции этих животных. Ограничения на импорт трофеев, ставящие под угрозу целесообразность охоты, вероятно, еще больше снизят стимулы и усугубят эту тенденцию. Охота может также непосредственно способствовать росту популяции путем изъятия из нее самцов, которые могут (например) соперничать с телятами и самками или даже убивать их. В Южной Африке охота на отдельных конкретных «избыточных» самцов черного носорога утверждается только в том случае, если соблюдаются критерии, изложенные в национальном плане управления биоразнообразием черного носорога, для обеспечения того, чтобы охота способствовала демографическому и генетическому сохранению вида. При проведении такой охоты получение дохода для природоохранных мероприятий является бонусом, а не основной целью. В последние годы «псевдоохотники» использовали законную трофейную охоту, чтобы получить доступ к рогу носорога для нелегальной продажи в страны Юго-Восточной Азии, что привело к резкому увеличению числа добытых в ходе трофейных охот животных (максимальная годовая добыча – 173 носорога в 2011 году). Однако введение в 2012 году в Южной Африке мер контроля обеспечило снижение количества добываемых охотниками белых носорогов до прежних уровней (Emslie et al., 2016). Пример 2. Горный баран в Монголии   В 1967 году в Монголии была узаконена трофейная охота на горного барана, в частности, на алтайского горного барана (алтайского аргали, Ovis ammon ammon), который является самым ценным трофейным видом в стране. Однако отсутствие надлежащей системы управления привело к практически неуправляемой охоте в условиях открытого доступа к ресурсу диких животных. Численность популяций горных баранов значительно сократилась, возможно, еще и за счет конкуренции из-за пастбищ с быстро растущей популяцией домашних коз (Page, 2015; Wingard, Zahler, 2006). В 2007 году WWF Монголии инициировал проект по управлению дикой природой на уровне общин в аймаке (районе) Увс [Uvs]на северо-западе Монголии. Цель проекта состояла в том, чтобы заменить неконтролируемое использование диких животных с открытым доступом общинным управлением, осуществляемым представителями семи местных общин, которые получали бы доходы от трофейной охоты, главным образом от охоты на алтайского горного барана. В рамках этого проекта была создана местная ООПТ Гулзат площадью 12,7 млн. гектаров, на территории которой для восстановления численности популяции горного барана был введен запрет на охоту. Благодаря защите от местных скотоводов численность популяции увеличилась с примерно 200 особей в 2003-2004 годах до более 1500 особей в 2014 году (рисунок 2). С началом управляемой охоты в заказнике рост численности популяции алтайского горного барана продолжился. За четыре года после снятия запрета было добыто двенадцать алтайских горных баранов, что обеспечило получение на местном уровне дохода в 123400 долл. США (Буяна Чимедорж, персональное сообщение, 2 марта 2016 г.). Рис. 2. Динамика численности популяции алтайского горного барана в заказнике Гулзат, Монголия. По горизонтали – год, по вертикали – количество особей. Менеджмент охоты в заказнике (на основе рекомендаций экспертов по управлению дикими животными, в том числе из ряда охотничьих компаний) осуществляет неправительственная организация Gulzat Initiative, состоящая исключительно из представителей местных общин. Трехсторонние договоры между охотничьими компаниями, Gulzat Initiative и губернатором аймака повышают прозрачность и контроль трофейной охоты (Буяна Чимедорж, персональное сообщение, 28 января 2016 г.). Недавние изменения, внесенные в законодательство Монголии, создали прочную базу для общинного управления дикими животными, основанном на опыте общинных заповедников в Намибии (см. Пример 5). Пример 3. Толсторог (снежный баран) в Северной Америке   Колонизация Северной Америки европейцами, сопровождающаяся резким увеличением поголовья домашнего скота вкупе с неконтролируемой охотой, привела к быстрому сокращению численности толсторога с примерно 1 миллиона особей в 1800 году до менее чем 25000 особей в 1950 году. С тех пор ради сохранения толсторога и других диких животных сотни тысяч гектаров земель были выведены из хозяйственного использования, главным образом за счет взносов и пожертвований (более 100 миллионов долларов США) со стороны лиц и организаций, причастных к трофейной охоте, а численность снежных баранов выросла более чем втрое по сравнению с историческим минимумом и составляет в настоящее время примерно 80000 особей (Hurley, Brewer and Thornton, 2015). Восстановление поголовья толсторога в Канаде и в Соединенных Штатах Америки было в основном достигнуто за счет сотрудничества охотников с региональными и национальными агентствами дикой природы с целью поддержки исследований и менеджмента диких животных, а также освобождения земель от домашнего скота. Например, в американском штате Вайоминг аукционы на охоту на снежного барана приносят ежегодно примерно 350000 долларов США, из которых 70 % идет на мероприятия по сохранению толсторога, а 10 % – на мероприятия по сохранению других диких животных. Треть из более чем 2 млн. долл. США, выплаченных овцеводам для освобождения от овец 187590 гектаров пастбищных угодий общего пользования, пришлось на долю средств, вырученных от проведения аукционов на охоту на толсторога (остальные две трети расходов были покрыты за счет сборов, выплачиваемых другими группами населения, причастными к охоте, рыбалке и дикой природе; K. Hurley, персональное сообщение, 23 февраля 2016 г.). Трофейная охота, организуемая коренными народами, также способствовала восстановлению популяции толсторога в Мексике. В 1975 году 20 животных были реинтродуцированы на остров Тибурон в Калифорнийском заливе (море Кортеса), принадлежащий и управляемый индейцами племени сери. Первоначальная причина исчезновения этого вида на острове неизвестна, но после реинтродукции популяция быстро увеличилась, достигнув максимальной численности в примерно 500 особей, что, вероятно, соответствует потенциальной емкости экосистемы острова. В 1995 году группа учреждений инициировала программу финансирования исследований и мероприятий по сохранению толсторога, которая обеспечивала бы при этом необходимый доход для племени сери путем проведения международных аукционов по продаже лицензий на эксклюзивную охоту на острове. На первых аукционах цена лицензий часто выражалась в шестизначных числах (в долларах США). В период с 1998 по 2007 год продажа лицензий на толсторога и молодняка животных для переселения принесла индейцам племени сери 3,2 млн. долл. США, которые были реинвестированы в общинные проекты племени, а также в менеджмент популяции толсторога и в сохранение экосистемы острова в первозданном виде. Финансирование мероприятий по сохранению экосистемы острова за счет доходов от трофейной охоты продолжается и в настоящее время; так, недавно племя сери продало несколько охотничьих лицензий по цене 80000-90000 долларов США за каждую. Остров Тибурон являлся одним из основных поставщиков животных для восстановления популяции толсторога в пустыне Сонора и в других районах на материке. Перспектива получения значительного дохода от трофейной охоты на толсторога и чернохвостого оленя (Odocoileus hemionus) побудила многих владельцев ранчо в пустыне Сонора освободить свои земли от домашнего скота (или же значительно сократить его поголовье), чтобы разместить на них диких животных (Valdez et al., 2006; Wilder et al. , 2014; Hurley, Brewer and Thornton, 2015). Пример 4. Частные охотничьи хозяйства в Зимбабве В Зимбабве передача прав на использование ресурсов диких животных землевладельцам в 1975 году повлекла за собой существенные изменения в сфере дичеводства – если в начале пути лишь пара дюжин владельцев ранчо занимались разведением дичи в качестве хобби, то уже к 2000 году в этот процесс были вовлечены 1000 землевладельцев, под управлением которых находились 2,7 млн. га охотничьих угодий. Основной движущей силой этих изменений стала трофейная охота (Child, 2009; Lindsey, Romañach and Davies-Mostert, 2009). С тех пор, вследствие осуществления программы земельной реформы число владельцев охотничьих хозяйств, как и площадь охотничьих угодий, значительно сократилось; тем не менее, несмотря на сложные экономические условия в стране, в настоящее время частные заповедники продолжают играть решающую роль в сохранении дикой природы. Оба описанных ниже заповедника практикуют трофейную охоту в качестве основного источника дохода и были бы нежизнеспособными в случае ее прекращения. Оба предприняли усилия по развитию экологического туризма, который не включает охоту (так называемый фототуризм или фотосафари), но он не приносит значительных доходов (политическая нестабильность в Зимбабве оказала гораздо большее негативное влияние на фототуризм, чем на охотничий туризм). Частный заповедник Саве Вэлли [Savé Valley Conservancy, SVC] площадью 344000 га был создан в 1990-х годах владельцами скотоводческих ранчо, которые пришли к выводу, что менеджмент диких животных может быть более эффективным вариантом землепользования, нежели животноводство. Разведение крупного рогатого скота привело к уничтожению всех слонов, носорогов, буйволов и львов (наряду с другими видами) в этом районе. На сегодняшний день в Саве Вэлли насчитывается около 1500 африканских слонов, 121 особь черного и 42 особи белого носорога, 280 львов и несколько стай гиеновидных собак. Охота на ранчо Санго (Sango Ranch), крупнейшем объекте Саве Вэлли, приносит ежегодно около 600000 долларов США, и ее организацию и проведение обеспечивают 120 постоянных работников, которые представляют более 1000 членов своих семей (Lindsey et al., 2008; W. Pabst и D. Goosen, персональное сообщение, 9 февраля 2016 года; Sango Wildlife, без даты). На территории заповедника Бубье Вэлли [Bubye Valley Conservancy, BVC] площадью 323000 га (также в прошлом скотоводческого ранчо) в настоящее время насчитывается примерно 500 львов (рисунок 3), 700 африканских слонов, 5000 африканских буйволов, 82 белых носорога и 211 черных носорогов (это третье по численности стадо черного носорога в Африке). Трофейные сборы в 2015 году составили 1,38 млн. долл. США. В Бубье Вэлли работает около 400 человек, и заповедник ежегодно инвестирует 200000 долларов США в проекты развития местных общин (BVC, без даты; B. Leathem, персональное сообщение, 17 января 2016 г.). Рис. 3. Динамика численности популяции льва в 1999-2009 гг. в заповеднике Бубье Вэлли, Зимбабве. По горизонтали – год, по вертикали – число особей. Частный заповедник Бубье Вэлли расположен на землях, ранее используемых для скотоводства, и его деятельность зависит от доходов, получаемых за счет проведения трофейных охот, которые обеспечивают финансирование мероприятий по сохранению диких животных. Саманьянга – район в восточной части заповедника на берегу реки Бубье. Отметим, что на этих ранчо доходы, полученные от трофейной охоты, способствуют сохранению и приносят пользу многим видам неохотничьих диких животных, таким, как черный носорог, белый носорог и гиеновидная собака. Пример 5. Общинные заповедники в Намибии  В начале 1990-х годов многие жители общинных земель Намибии считали, что дикие животные представляют угрозу для их жизни и источников средств к существованию, поскольку они уничтожали посевы, разрушали объекты водоснабжения, а также убивали или калечили домашний скот и людей. Но уже в 2015 году 82 общинных заповедника осуществляли менеджмент диких животных на землях общей площадью в 1,6 млн. га, на которых также проживает около 190000 человек, включая представителей коренных и племенных общин (NACSO, 2015). В основе успеха Намибии в общинном управлении природными ресурсами лежит трофейная охота. Недавние исследования показали, что в случае потери доходов от трофейной охоты большинство заповедников не смогут покрыть свои эксплуатационные расходы и станут нерентабельными. Популяции диких животных в этом случае резко сократятся, как и выгоды для местного населения (Naidoo et al., 2016) (рисунок 4). В целом, выгоды, которые общинные заповедники приносят местным жителям (например: денежный доход для отдельных лиц или общин; мясо диких животных; социальные услуги, такие, как школы и медицинские учреждения) в равной степени обеспечиваются как за счет трофейной охоты, так и за счет фототуризма. Большая часть доходов реинвестируется в менеджмент и охрану диких животных. Около половины заповедников получают свои выгоды исключительно за счет охоты, а большинство остальных получают доходы и от охоты, и от туризма. Исключительно на туризме специализируются только 12 % заповедников (Naidoo et al., 2016). Выручка в заповедниках от трофейной охоты на 29 видов диких животных в 2015 году составила 36,4 млн. динаров (около 2,7 млн. долл. США) (NACSO, 2015). Так, за каждую охоту на слона общины напрямую получают около 20000 долларов США, плюс около 3000 кг мяса (Chris Weaver, персональное сообщение, 18 января 2016 г.). Рис. 4. Доход, полученный от трофейной охоты, лежит в основе успеха программы общинных заповедников Намибии. Карты иллюстрируют экономическую жизнеспособность общинных заповедников в Намибии: (А) при существующем положении дел; (Б) при гипотетическом запрете трофейной охоты, где (1) – нерентабельные заповедники; (2) – заповедники, функционирующие на пороге рентабельности и (3) – рентабельные заповедники. С началом реализации программы создания общинных заповедников численность популяций диких животных в Намибии резко возросла. На общинных землях на северо-востоке популяция черной антилопы (Hippotragus niger) увеличилась с 724 особей в 1994 году до 1474 особей в 2011 году, а популяция импалы (Aepyceros melampus) выросла за тот же период с 439 особей до 9374 особей. В заповеднике на северо-западе страны популяция горной зебры Хартмана (Equus zebra hartmannae) – вида, находящегося в уязвимом положении (по классификации МСОП), – увеличилась с менее чем 1000 особей в начале 1980-х годов до примерно 27000 особей в 2011 году, а численность популяции черного носорога увеличилось более чем втрое – это самая крупная популяция свободно пасущихся носорогов в Африке (заповедники не огорожены). Развитие системы общинных заповедников и защита, обеспечиваемая национальными парками, привели к увеличению численности популяции слонов с 7500 особей в 1995 году до более чем 20000 животных на сегодняшний день. В настоящее время популяция льва в заповеднике Kunene увеличилась с примерно 25 особей в 1995 году до 150 особей, кроме того, в Намибии сегодня имеется большое число львов, свободно перемещающихся за пределами национальных парков (NACSO, 2015; C. Weaver, персональное сообщение, 18 января 2016 г.). Пример 6. Мархур и уриал в Пакистане В Пакистане в середине 1980-х годов вожди местных пуштунских племен были обеспокоены тем, что из-за неконтролируемой незаконной охоты для пропитания значительно сократилась численность популяций сулейманского (пряморогого) мархура (Capra falconeri megaceros) (их осталось менее 100 особей) и афганского уриала (Ovis orientalis) (около 200 особей). После безрезультатного обращения к правительству по поводу защиты этих двух видов животных вожди пуштунских племен разработали программу «Комплекс мероприятий по охране природы в провинции Торгар» (Torghar Conservation Project), в основу которой легла простая концепция: члены местных общин откажутся от охоты в обмен на наем в качестве охранников для предотвращения браконьерства, а финансирование программы будет осуществляться за счет доходов, полученных от ограниченной трофейной охоты на мархура и уриала, осуществляемой иностранными охотниками. Программа охватывает около 100000 га, на которых проживают 4000 человек. В период с 1986 по 2012 год охота на эти два вида диких животных принесла 486400 долл. США правительству провинции и 2,71 млн. долл. США местным общинам, причем из этих средств общины платили зарплату более 80 охранникам и финансировали различные общинные проекты, включая школы и медицинские учреждения, а также различные мероприятия, направленные на снижение конкуренции за пастбища между дикими животными и домашним скотом. За эти годы объемы незаконной охоты резко сократились: к 2012 году численность популяции мархура выросла примерно до 3500 особей, а численность уриала по результатам обследования 2005 года была оценена в 2541 особь (Woodford, Frisina, Awun, 2004; Frisina, Tareen, 2009; Mallon, 2013).   Похожие примеры можно привести и для других районов, как в Пакистане, так и в Таджикистане. Все вышеперечисленные факторы способствовали недавнему изменению природоохранного статуса мархура в Красном списке МСОП (IUCN Red List), где он больше не входит в категорию видов, находящихся под угрозой исчезновения. За пределами охраняемых территорий стабильность и рост численности популяций наблюдается только в тех районах, где ведется устойчивая охота (Michel, Rosen Michel, 2015). Как запрет на трофейную охоту повлияет на сохранение, а также на коренное население и местные общины? Прямой запрет на трофейную охоту и ограничения на импорт или транспортировку трофеев, особенно со стороны Европейского союза и США, могут положить конец трофейной охоте, сделав охотничьи программы экономически нерентабельными (см. рисунок 4). Приведенные в этой статье примеры ясно дают понять, что в отсутствие эффективных и устойчивых программ альтернативного развития устранение стимулов и доходов, обеспечиваемых трофейной охотой, может привести к серьезному сокращению численности популяций ряда знаковых или находящихся под угрозой исчезновения видов, что, в свою очередь, может остановить и обратить вспять процесс восстановления некоторых популяций, например, африканского слона, черного и белого носорога, горной зебры Хартмана и льва в Африке, мархура, аргали и уриала в Азии, толсторога в Северной Америке. Кроме того, запрет трофейной охоты может оказать негативное влияние на популяции находящихся под угрозой исчезновения видов, на которые трофейная охота не проводится, таких, как снежный барс и гиеновидная собака. Для некоторых коренных и местных общин запрет на трофейную охоту или ее нерентабельность означали бы утрату денежных доходов от охотничьих концессий на их землях, ограничение доступа к мясу и потерю возможности трудоустройства. Около 5000 представителей коренных народностей кхве сан (Khwe San) и мбукушу (Mbukushu), проживающих в национальном парке Бватвата (Bwatwata National Park), относятся к числу самых бедных жителей Намибии, тем не менее, в последнее время они зарабатывали благодаря трофейной охоте около 2,4 млн. динаров (155000 долл. США) ежегодно (R. Diggle, персональное сообщение, 18 марта 2016 г.). Прекращение трофейной охоты станет для них огромным ударом как из-за потери дохода, так и из-за сокращения доступа к мясу (а так как они живут в национальном парке, это значит, что они не могут пасти скот или выращивать товарные культуры). Если трофейная охота станет нерентабельной, тысячи сельских зимбабвийских домохозяйств, которые напрямую получают выгоду от программы CAMPFIRE 3, потеряют в совокупности около 1,7 млн. долл. США ежегодного дохода, который и так сократился с 2,2 млн. долл. США из-за запрета на импорт в США трофеев, добытых в ходе охоты на слонов (C. Jonga, персональное сообщение, 27 августа 2015 г.). 3 CAMPFIRE (Communal Areas Management Programme For Indigenous Resources) – Программа менеджмента местных ресурсов на общинных землях, реализуемая в Зимбабве, – одна из первых в мире программ менеджмента природных ресурсов на уровне общин [Community-based Natural Resource Management)] (Mutandwa, Gadzirayi, 2007). В странах, где средний доход сельских жителей составляет несколько долларов в день или даже меньше, это значительные денежные суммы. Но, возможно, еще более существенно то, что односторонние ограничения на импорт трофеев уменьшают возможность и без того достаточно маргинализированных сельских общин принимать решения об управлении своими землями и дикими животными на основе уважения права на свободное волеизъявление и максимального соответствия этих решений чаяниям людей в отношении обеспечения средств к существованию. Может ли альтернативное землепользование заменить трофейную охоту? Трофейная охота не является единственным средством повышения экономической ценности дикой природы и получения выгод для местного населения. Часто высказывается мнение о том, что фототуризм мог бы полностью заменить трофейную охоту. Нет сомнений, что это прекрасная возможность обеспечить в различных регионах планеты существенные выгоды для местного населения и сохранения дикой природы, но дело в том, что на сегодняшний день фототуризм экономически рентабелен только в небольшом числе охотничьих заповедников. В отличие от трофейной охоты, для организации фотографического туризма необходима политическая стабильность, доступная и развитая транспортная инфраструктура, минимальный риск заболеваний, высокая плотность популяций диких животных для гарантированного выбора натуры, живописные ландшафты, большие капиталовложения, соответствующая туристическая инфраструктура (гостиницы, снабжение продовольствием и водой, утилизация отходов), а также профессиональные компетенции и навыки организаторов на местах. Фототуризм и трофейная охота часто являются взаимодополняющими видами землепользования, не пересекающимися по времени или территории. Обычно, если в каком-то районе, где проводится трофейная охота, возможно проведение фотосафари, то, как правило, эта деятельность осуществляется (Примеры 4 и 5). При отсутствии тщательно продуманной организации фототуризм (как и трофейная охота) может серьезно повлиять на экологию и оказаться практически бесполезным для местных общин в плане обеспечения выгод, так как вся прибыль от фотосафари осядет в офшорах или достанется местным элитам (Sandbrook, Adams, 2012). Чтобы быть действительно успешными, любые альтернативы трофейной охоте должны обеспечивать реально ощутимые и эффективные природоохранные стимулы. Они должны сделать дикую природу ценной для людей в долгосрочной перспективе и обеспечить местным общинам возможность осуществлять свои права и обязанности по менеджменту и сохранению дикой природы. Различные формы ПЭУ (схем платежей за экосистемные услуги, [PES schemes]) обладают значительным потенциалом для привлечения инвестиций или добровольных взносов со стороны государства, благотворительных фондов, а также частных лиц и компаний для стимулирования деятельности по сохранению различных видов диких животных и их местообитаний. В качестве примера (хотя их число весьма ограничено в связи с трудностью получения стабильного финансирования) можно привести программу аренды земель, принадлежащих общинам масаи, компанией Cottar’s Safari Service в частном заповеднике Olderkesi, Кения (IUCN SULi et al., 2015). Однако, в целом довольно сложно рассматривать различные формы ПЭУ в качестве альтернативы трофейной охоте из-за рисков, связанных с нестабильностью финансирования. Важнейшей задачей здесь является обеспечение устойчивости финансовых потоков в долгосрочной перспективе, так чтобы они не зависели от весьма изменчивых приоритетов спонсоров. Стимулы для сохранения и поступление доходов местным общинам в некоторых регионах может также обеспечить (хотя и со многими оговорками) программа REDD+ 5. 4 REDD+ [Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries – СВОД+ (сокращение выбросов, обусловленных обезлесением и деградацией лесов в развивающихся странах), – программа Продовольственной и сельскохозяйственной организации ООН (ФАО). – Примеч. перев.], – термин, обозначающий усилия разных стран по сокращению выбросов углекислого газа в результате обезлесения и деградации лесов, налаживание сохранения, устойчивого менеджмента лесов, содействующего связыванию углерода (www. forestcarbonpartnership.org/what-redd). Реформирование практики трофейной охоты Несмотря на позитивные примеры, приведенные в этой статье, мы полностью осознаем, что во многих странах в сфере руководства и управления трофейной охотой имеется множество (обычно не подтвержденных документально) слабых мест и недоработок, поэтому следует активно поддерживать грамотные и продуктивные действия директивных органов по улучшению ситуации в этой области. Ограничения на импорт трофеев часто являются самым привлекательным в плане выбора решением для директивных органов стран-импортеров, поскольку эти мероприятия легко реализуемы и не требуют высоких затрат со стороны принимающих решение органов, которые, к тому же не несут официальной ответственности за последствия таких решений для стран-экспортеров охотничьих трофеев. Однако успех в области сохранения редко достигается путем принятия отдельных решений в далеких столицах; как правило, требуется долгосрочное, устойчивое взаимодействие многих заинтересованных сторон на местах и за рубежом. В качестве альтернативы односторонним, всеобъемлющим ограничениям или запретам, которые приводят к сворачиванию программ трофейной охоты, лица, принимающие решения, могли бы рассмотреть вопрос о том, отвечают ли конкретные программы требованиям передовых практик природоохранной охоты (IUCN SSC, 2012; Brainerd, 2007). При наличии проблем в области руководства и управления было бы в высшей степени полезно наладить взаимодействие с соответствующими странами при решении, например, таких вопросов, как транспарентность (прозрачность) финансовых потоков, общинные выгоды, распределение концессий и установление квот; права и обязанности коренных народов и местных общин, мониторинг популяций и охоты. Важную роль в повышении стандартов должны играть все заинтересованные в трофейной охоте стороны – страны-импортеры, спонсоры, национальные регуляторы и менеджеры, общинные организации, исследователи, природоохранные и охотничьи организации, а также представители охотничьей индустрии. В отдельных случаях обусловленные определенными обстоятельствами, ограниченные по времени адресные запреты, направленные на решение выявленных проблем, могут способствовать совершенствованию практики трофейной охоты. Однако мораторий на трофейную хоту вряд ли приведет к улучшению результатов в области сохранения, если нет твердой уверенности том, что совершенствование охотничьей практики приведет к отмене запрета и в том, что страна обладает потенциалом и политической волей для решения этих проблем. Поэтому крайне важно, по крайней мере, для развивающихся стран, чтобы моратории сопровождались финансированием и методической поддержкой для улучшения менеджмента на местах и обследования состояния дел в проблемной области по истечении определенного времени. Заключение Трофейная охота все чаще привлекает пристальное внимание и сталкивается с резонансными и зачастую эффективными кампаниями, призывающими к широкомасштабным запретам. Существуют обоснованные опасения в отношении законности, устойчивости и этичности некоторых видов трофейной охоты, но призывы к ее полному запрету или ограничению импорта трофеев чреваты риском «выплеснуть из ванны вместе с водой и ребенка», поскольку такие призывы негативно сказываются на программах, которые оказывают существенное и жизненно важное позитивное воздействие на восстановление и защиту видов, на поддержание и менеджмент местообитаний, а также на права общин и обеспечение им средств к существованию. В некоторых случаях можно говорить об эффективных и осуществимых на практике альтернативах трофейной охоте, которые могут обеспечить вышеупомянутые выгоды, но для их выявления, финансирования и осуществления требуются непосредственные консультации и взаимодействие с правительствами стран, подвергнувшихся негативному экологическому воздействию, частным сектором и общинами. Финансирование таких альтернативных проектов не должно зависеть от капризов спонсоров и, что крайне важно, такие альтернативы должны обеспечивать в долгосрочной перспективе сопоставимые по эффективности (или более сильные) стимулы для сохранения. В противном случае они не обратят вспять, а еще больше ускорят сокращение популяций знаковых видов, ликвидируют экономические стимулы для сохранения обширных районов обитания диких животных и будут способствовать отчуждению и ослаблению и без того маргинализованных общин, которые живут на одних землях с дикими животными и в значительной степени определяют их будущее. 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It was the fifth day of hunting. I got up early, fresh and full of strength. Sleeping in the mountains has a beneficial effect to my health. My heart beat faster when I saw the tops, covered by snow. The dream vanished. For the breakfast I had fat with onion, the boiled eggs and opened a can of sprat in tomato, then had tea with snickers and that’s all. It was the first time when I’d boiled eggs in the hunting trip and some hunters could say that’s it’s bad luck but I’m sure that luck doesn’t depend on what you eat. My plan was to move slowly and to hunt just till the lunch time. It’d be ok if I saw something in the morning and then would go back. The goal was to see not to get the trophy. I turned from the main gorge to the smallest one, which was called Terspetak. Two groups of boars crossed the river just in few minutes before me, their tracks were still fresh and wet. I climbed leisurely, it was the fifth day and fatigue was making itself felt. The clothe soaked with sweat in the first day, didn’t have sour smell anymore as if all toxins left my body and now I emitted just spring water. My hearing had become so acute, thoughts cleared and the soul rejoiced. I mused what was more important on the hunt , meat or impressions? If I got the trophy in the first day I couldn’t see that beauty. So sometimes it’s good not to finish the hunt in the first day but from the other hand nobody wants to go home with empty hands. So I came to the conclusion that it was nice when you can spent some days in nature and then get the trophy. But it works only if you have time as I had in that time. I noticed several roes which grazed among the bushes. I spotted them without any tools, then measured the distance, it was 400 meters. It’s super. The vision, after few days of hunting, became sharper. I discovered one more thing that I became stronger each time when saw the hunting game, it was even easier to climb. I reached the jumper with the next ridge and detected two horned roes, watched them for a long. It was lunch time but they were not going to lie down and rest. I ascended along the ridge for the height but didn’t find any sign of the goats, though heard the rockfalls on the opposite range. I’m sure they were ibexes but couldn’t see them on the dark rocks. They were much darker in that part of the hunting ground, even the youngsters merged with the environment. Those mountains were their home and they were safe there. I marked the hill and decided to come to it, then to check if there was something and then would go home. I reached it and found one more upland, decided to go to it and did so four times. While having lunch at two o’clock I started to think over the situation and solved to stay there till the end. The further route leaded down what was much easier. I had just to go and to choose the way and to monitor the surroundings. Moreover I discovered fresh tracks on the opposite slope. They belonged to the group of fifty animals and animals were somewhere below me. The rocky visors didn’t allow to consider whey they lie. If I descend and took one of them I couldn’t carry it back, didn’t’ have enough time and didn’t want to spent night there. So I had to go further. I concentrated on the watching the other places. It was 3 o’clock when I had the second lunch. It was warm enough but the sun didn’t blind and I could see and define everything around. Moreover I noticed that after being few days in the forest became more attentive and could scan the surrounding more gentle. Thus I detected three females and the youngster, they had rest at the end of the ravine, I’d been there yesterday but didn’t reach that place. Today I saw them because I was much higher. Where were males? All animals, I’d seen during the day, were females only. That thought just flashed in my mind when I noticed two smudged blots with the horns! Ibexes. They were laying on snow, then one of them stood up and laid down once again behind the tree. They took the right position when had laid above the gorge on the slope and could see three exits from different sides while the high impassable rocks blocked the forth side. Those animals were very experienced, one of them laid and watched one side while another one controlled the other. Very effective cooperation. I’m sure that they survived because lived together, two pairs of eyes were sharper. One could sleep while another was on duty and vice versa. What I had to do just try to approach. It was possible because I was higher than they were and noticed them first. The slope, where we all were, wasn’t steep. It was the beginning of the bowl or circus, goats on the one side and I was on another. I decided to move down directly to them. At the beginning I went without hiding, then began to move from the tree to another one and checked if they noticed me or not. Then climbed over the bend and went directly reducing the distance. It was late when I realized that the best way was to descend along another bend and went on to move from tree to tree. Then there was an open area and the branch of the river. They laid on the right bank while I was on the left one. The only way was to cross the river , the distance in such case would be about 500 meters, the working one. I moved very calm, didn’t worry about the result though it was the first time when I saw such huge trophies. They still laid and didn’t give a sign that smelt me. They were too beautiful. My position was comfortable and I couldn’t but hit the mark from it. I had good tool but better to come close to be sure. I went to the big stone, which was the same size as I was, hiding behind it I measured the distance. It was 570 meters but the goats smelt me! They notice me, when I was crossing the open area, and stood up ready to run. It was time. I put elbows on the stone, bring optics and press gently down ... Not checking the result tried to move closer to make some more pictures but there weren’t any sign of them. I spent some time trying to define the direction, where they left but couldn’t do it. Very experienced males. I wasn’t going to kill them just make some pictures but they didn’t believe me. I had rest and monitored the crumbled slopes which surrounded me and decided to move back to the camp because was tired and had seen enough. I descended to the narrow part of the gorge and found the fresh tracks of goats, they passed there recently. Then I found the tracks of another herd, there were tracks of big males, I could judge so according to its size. I was examinng their footprints when noticed the motion with the side vision. The group of fifteen Ibexes ran up along the steep slope. The measured distance was 365 meters and they were not going to stop. The last goat in their chain was what I needed. It wasn’t the biggest one but suited to my goal. I stood on the one slope and the herd was on the opposite one. All I had to do was to take the gun, put off the cover, set bipod and measured the distance once again: 398 meters. It seemed to me that Leika worked slow but then gave the correction – 3.9 MOA. “So,- I whispered to myself,- there is the big rock, then the tree and then the Ibex.” It stood sideways near the Archa tree. It was getting dark and I could hardly see it. Then I aimed under its shoulder blade, hold my breath and pulled the trigger. But nothing had happened. I forgot to distort, not cocked the trigger. It took me 3 seconds more. The Ibex did two steps and was turning its back, then froze for a moment as thinking what to do next. If it did one more step I’d lose any chance to get it. It wasn’t possible to aim to the shoulder blade once again and tried to find its back haunch hoping the bullet would go across the body and damage the spin. It almost merged with the tree. The sight froze on the definite place, my pulse was absolutely normal, feet stood stable. The whole body was one with the stone. Exhale and the shot! The sweet sound of the hit reached my ears through the echo of the shot. According to the sound from AccuBond 140 gr. , the hit was accurate. In a second I saw that the goat stopped, then crouched, fell and tumbled down. It tried to stood up but the spine was damaged. Soon everything was over. I hoped it’d fall down to the bottom of the gorge but it got stuck. I congratulated myself with the good shot because wasn’t sure that could get anything that day. It was 6.30 pm. The hunting god awarded me for my patience and hard work during last days. The next thing to find it! The ground was frozen yet and shoes didn’t slide. It took me 45 minutes to climb to the place where the goat stucked, then I threw the carcass down and ran for it. This part of the process lasted less than five minutes. I only had to take out the insides, took its liver, heart and inner fat. The male wasn’t big but fat what meant that the winter would be cold. I went back to the camp not feeling tired. The female goats whistled to my back, irritated by the flashligh, while I was walking. Later in the evening I called the guide and he arrived in the morning. We went to the place where I left the trophy, cut meat and loaded it on the horses. It was the amazing final of those unforgettable hunt. The mountains attract people. We live and go away but they always stay.

It was dark and cold when my guide an I left the camp. The mountains covered by night kept silence. Using the flashlight’s rays like the Ariadne's thread we reached the tumultuous river and crossed it by the fallen pine. I felt myself like the funambulist who showed the tricks in the darkness. The hunt waited for us on another side of the river. We walk by the brushwood which is covered by hoarfrost and tend to the mountain from where the climb will start. All around us, illuminated by the monochrome light of our lantern, seems to be unreal, one-dimensional and flat. The beam of the lantern shows the fragments of foothill landscape: the gnarled bark of old firs, which were up against the pitch-black night, the tangle of branches of river willows, silvered by frost, the gray skin of belly boulders-stones, withered dry grass underfoot. The vapor of our breath in the cold air looks alive and voluminous. The body, heated by active movement, wakes up and breathes hard under the numerous layers of clothing. Trickles of sweat run along my back and I take off some extra clothe when we've made a short rest near the foothill. The perky stream murmurs on the pile of stone scree, like the staircase, calls us up. Let’s go! We go up along the streamlet bed very carefully, check each step to avoid slipping and getting your feet wet. The gelatinous water runs from the glaciers, frosts on the wet stones and grass and freezes icicles on the shallows. It’s so tasty and quenches thirst well. Soon we leave the foothills forest and ascend about half of km by the open area. Then the spring splits into two forks: the first one comes to the narrow couloir, the second has frosted and covered the rockfall be the icy glaze. We leaves river bed and scramble to the shore covered by the mangled forest. The low, thick birches creep by the ground because of the permanent avalanching and it’s really difficult to go through it. Twisted knotty branches and roots of trees tangle in the legs, whipping in the face, clinging to the rifle strapped to the backpack. We climb thirty meters then make a short rest to calm the heartbeat and attack them once again. Each assault finishes by the short stop and then repeats it. Forward only forward. This forest ends near the sheer wall on the top of which we see the small trees and thickets of Euphorbia. We have to scramble to the cornice if want to see the flat slope will is located behind it. The slope or so called hanging valley is the place where my guide has seen the grazing chamois. They are our goal. Pulling up on the roots of trees groping for support under our feet on small recesses and ledges, we carefully overcome this boundary. The heart beats faster because of the blood pressure or because I’m nervous waiting what will be next. The heart falls down each time when the stone under the feet runs down with the noise. At last we’ve done it but the slope is empty. It rises by the heavy wave to the mountain and goes to the next valley which we can’t see yet. We stops for a while, monitor the surroundings through the binocular and go on up with the hope. The slope gets steeper and it’s not easy to walk, each step cost us energy and we have to make stops each 40-50 meters. We’ve done it! But there are no animals on the next slope too. We comes to the place where the valley ends and camp among the rocks which protect us from the wind. Now I have time to look to the gorge from where we’ve come. It took us two hours. All under our feet covered by the light smoke and the river in the bottom looks like the vein on the hand. It reminds me the view from the plane. The century-old firs, yellow matchbox of our cabin and the thin thread of the mountain road look like toys. And only the massive ridges with the snowy tops stay very proudly. This is the beauty and power of the Caucasus! What to do next? I see that Sergey is also confused. We reached the last point where were going to find the animals. Chamois don’t like to graze on the tops and prefer to stay close to the foothills near the pine and fir forests. But we don’t see any of them and it means that our plan doesn’t work. There are two variants what to do. The first one is to stay there and wait if the chamois will come or to climb to the top and check the surroundings on the other side. The second way is more perspective but we are afraid of its steepness. Sometimes it reaches about 45 degree tilt. We realize that have to ascend but try to delay decision making and start to look through the binoculars. Suddenly Sergey detected the group of turs, in a half of km from us. The animals move to us side, but make stops for grazing. We have the license for this species and don’t want to lose lucky chance if there is a trophy size male. We both lay on the stones and monitor them. It’s the beginning of November. Turs had molted already and changed the fur to the winter one, of the dark sand color. They merge with the brown grass-covered slope, it is difficult to keep track of them. The herd stretched along the slope but we can’t find the male. It consists of females with babies and some last year youngsters. The group is leaded by the old female which moves ahead while small babies get in her way. Animals go against the wind and don’t smell us. We watch how they moved in 100 meters from us. I could see through the sight how the gusts of wind flutter their thick fur, and how their nostrils flinch when they sniff and even how the leader looks around. It’s a pity but there is not the trophy size male in this herd. Though it’s rut time and a male can be somewhere close, we have to be ready any time and check surroundings from time to time. When animals disappeared behind the mountain’s kink our group went on our climbing. We moved by zigzags putting the edge of the sole of the shoe in the rocky ground, leaning on a faithful pole and persistently climbed up. I tried not to look back because each time when I did it accidentally I felt that the current shot through the body, same feeling as if you were falling to an abyss in the dream. The steep slope under my feet runs down where you can hardly see the river and the cabin. It makes the illusion that the ground tilted like a sinking ship. There is no longer the usual level horizon, and someone deliberately increases and increases the angle to eventually shake me down into the bottomless abyss. I try to look just on the faded grass, stone’s crumbs and the grey top of the rocks which protrude from the snow. I’ve lost track of time and walk thinking about nothing. We concentrate on the only thing how to not to waste breathing. It seems very important. The peaks of the rocks come closer and at last I can touch their rough century skin. We did it. We reached the top where wasn’t going. I’ve found the support underfoot and now can look around. My head is spinning because of the height but then the feeling of the pure delight fills me with everything. My peak was the highest among the others and the Caucasus glistening with glaciers under the sun laid before me as if in the palm. The mountains stretched to the horizon alternating with narrow valleys and circuses. The shadow slopes, cut by the veins of clefts were covered by snow though the sunny ones were bared. I was impressed by the endless scale and monumentality of the mountains, they filled the whole expanse and caused both admiration and awe. The azure sky spread out of them and the lonely Griffon vulture circled above us. Sergey and I reached the end of the peak on all fours and looked behind it to the next side of the mountain, the sheer wall of which fall for a hundred meters down. The strange group of the black stones, on the next slope across the chasm from us, attracted our attention. We snuggled to the binoculars. So they were, Chamois! Five females pastured on the small piece of grass and lay down to have rest from time to time. Their thick winter fur made them look like funny toy balls on the thin legs. They all were black except the white undertails and heads. Small, black horns stucked upright like antennas and, curved into hooks at the ends. Soon we detected the male which looked like female but had the specific brush on its belly. It was nervous. The male ran up and down along the rocks as if protected the herd. Soon we understood what was going on. When our male climbed to the top and I was ready to fire another male appeared. It stretch the neck and trotted towards the goats trying to get acquaintance. The rut season was in full swing. The first male, the dominated one, ran to banish it. It chased it to the foothill, we could see them till that place, and ran back in ten minutes. The rival appeared several times and everything repeated. All that time I was laying on the stones waiting for the opportunity to shoot. There were several moments which bothered me to act. The distance was too long, the male was very active and I was afraid that it’d fall into the abyss. I hoped that sooner or later it’d leave the steep slope and moved to the snow plateau where I could take it. But it didn’t happen. The center of its attraction was the females and it was afraid to leave them. The “ladies” grazed to the same piece of grass and were not going to leave it. The hours went but nothing had changed. I put on some extra warm clothes and laid on the ground watching how my trophy ran up and down by the rocks trying to find and to banish the opponents. My fellow and I discussed all possible variants and went to the conclusion that none of them was worthy. The chamois would notice us in any case if we try to approach. We spent here three hours already.- Sergey grumbled watching the old male through the binocular. The object of our displeasure stood on the end of the rock and chewed a bunch of grass. If it rose in sixty meters up to the crest of the slope I’d fire without hesitation. “If it reach the crest, shoot it immediately”.- Sergey gave me advice. The goat heard his words and moved to the top. I strained and we hold our breath. But luck turned out from us and it stopped but didn't reach it. The slope on the place where it stopped was more flat and there was a chance that it wouldn’t fall down. "Well, that's enough, so we'll wait until night!"– the guide couldn’t suffer anymore. "Go ahead, take him down now!» The red square of my rangefinder laid on its black fir and measure the distance. It was 220 meter. I made all necessary corrections and prepared to act. The animal turned and I pulled the trigger without hesitation. The chamois, thrown by the shot, jumped and fall to the slope, raising clouds of dust on the dry ground. It was fading and inexorably slide down to the abyss. Sergey and I asked our gods to prevent it but they didn’t hear us and the trophy disappeared in the bottomless precipice. Later we heard the sound of the rockfall somewhere deep down. We’ve sigh heavily and started to descend wondering how much time and effort it would cost us to get the trophy up. Meanwhile the sun had long passed its Zenith and we realized that couldn’t come back to the camp till night. So it was.

A short article by five researchers from Great Britain, Australia and Namibia, the title of which is shown above in capital letters, has been published on August 30 in the Letters section in one of the world's leading scientific journals "Science . This letter was also signed by 128 scientists (27 from Oxford University), public figures from many European and African countries, from Canada, Australia and the USA, from Afghanistan, Iraq, China, Tajikistan (there were no Russians among the signatories). The International Council for the Conservation of Game and Wildlife (CIC) posted this article in open access on its website yesterday. It's titled the "Science is above Emotions” (clck.ru/Hubmb). Below is my technical translation of the article. . Amy Dickman, Rosie Cooney, Paul J. Johnson, Maxi Pia Louis, Dilys Roe, and 128 signatories . Trophy hunting is under public pressure now: noisy campaigns are underway to ban it; several governments have passed laws against it (1). The Bill CECIL (2) – "Conserving Ecosystems by Ceasing the Importation of Large Animal Trophies Act” was introduced in Congress of the United States on 04/10/2019, was discussed at a hearing held by the Subcommittee on Waters, Oceans and Wildlife of the Committee on Natural Resources on 07/18/2019. - S. Matveychuk] provides for the ban for the import of trophies of lions and elephants from Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, the restriction of the import [from anywhere of all] species of animals listed as endangered or endangered by the US Endangered Species Act. Australia, the Netherlands and France have also restricted the import of trophies (1), and the UK is under appropriate pressure.  All calls for hunting bans are usually justified by concern for the preservation of [nature]. However, there is convincing evidence that the prohibition of trophy hunting will have a negative impact on conservation. It's a fact that in African countries where trophy hunting is on the high level of development, more lands have been preserved than by creating national parks (3), and the cessation of trophy hunting is fraught with risks of transformation [development of untouched or intact] lands and loss of biodiversity (4). Poor management of trophy hunting can cause the decline of local populations (5), but in the absence of more effective alternatives to land use, hunting reform - proven to be effective (6) - should take precedence over prohibitions (7). The positive effects of properly regulated hunting on populations have been demonstrated for many species, including rhinoceroses, markhors, argali, rhinoceroses and many African ungulates (7). Trophy hunting can also generate income for marginalized, poor rural communities (7). There is the lack of other alternatives; opponents of hunting promote its replacement with photo tourism, but many hunting areas are remote or ineffective to attract enough visitors (8). Species like lions are in the worst position, especially in areas where there is no photo tourism or trophy hunting (9); uncontrolled killing can be much more common there than in hunting areas, with serious consequences for the conservation and welfare of animals (10). Focusing on trophy hunting distracts attention from the main threats to wildlife. The World Conservation Organization - the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) – has given a clear conclusion that " trophy hunting can and does have a positive impact with effective regulation and management” for the conservation of [wild animals] and the livelihood of local communities (7). The IUCN calls for a number of steps to be taken before decisions are made limiting or terminating trophy hunting programs. (7) It's made despite the existence of problems worthy of consideration for improving [trophy hunting], including in the areas of public administration, management, transparency of financial flows, and ensuring benefits for communities (11). It's critically, African countries have announced a "New Deal" for rural communities (12), which allows them to act independently in the areas of sustainable wildlife management and poverty reduction. The international community has an obligation not to undermine this course.  Some people (including many of us) find trophy hunting disgusting, but an environmental policy, which is not based on science, poses a threat to habitat and biological diversity, fraught with the impotence and ruin of rural communities. . References and notes . 1. E.Ares,“Trophy hunting,” House of Commons Library Briefing Paper Number 7908 (2019); https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/Research…/…/CBP-7908. 2. U.S. Congress, H.R.2245 – CECIL Act (2019);www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/2245/text. 3. P.A.Lindsey, P.A.Roulet, S.S.Romanach, Biol. Conserv. 134, 455 (2007). 4. E. Di Minin et al., Conserv. Biol. 27, 808 (2013). 5. C.Packer et al., Conserv. Biol. 25, 142 (2011). 6. C.M.Begg, J.R.B.Miller, K.S.Begg, J. Appl. Ecol. 55, 139 (2018). 7. IUCN,“Informing decisions on trophy hunting”(IUCN,Gland, Switzerland, 2016). 8. C.W.Winterbach, C.Whitesell, M.J.Somers, PLOS One 10, e0135595 (2015). 9. P.A.Lindsey et al., Biol. Conserv. 209, 137 (2017). 10. A.J.Dickman, in Conflicts in Conservation: Navigating Towards Solutions, S.M.Redpath, R.J.Gutierrez, K.A.Wood, J.C.Young, Eds. (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2015), pp. 30–32. 11. IUCN SSC, “Guiding principles on trophy hunting as a tool for conservation incentives v 1.0” (IUCN SSC, Gland, Switzerland, 2012). [For the Russian-language version of the document (and about it), see the Hunting Studies page: Vkontakt – clck.ru/HudmC; in Facebook –clck.ru/FHmjS.] 12. Southern Africa Trust, “Declaration – Voices of the communities: A new deal for rural communities and wildlife and natural resources” (2019);www.southernafricatrust.org/…/declaration-voices-of-the-co…/. . List of Signatories [список подписантов, https://science.sciencemag.org/conte…/365/6456/874/suppl/DC1 . ============ S.P. Matveichuk Source: Source: Dickman, Amy; Cooney, Rosie; Johnson, Paul J.; Louis, Maxi Pia; Roe, Dilys; 128 signatories. Trophy hunting bans imperil biodiversity. Science. 2019. Vol. 365. Issue. 6456. P. 874. DOI: 10.1126/science.aaz0735. URL: clck.ru/Huas2 (CIC);  List of signatories of the article (128 persons): clck.ru/HucTj

Congratulations Magidov Sobolev and Dyadchenko Nikolai Nikolaevich with a successful hunt for snow sheep Yakutia!

Российская команда стрелков ФВСР, пройдя отборочные турниры в Европейских  странах, участвовала в заключительных соревнованиях «Kahles Dynamic LR Challenge 2019» формата «Long Range», которые прошли в Австрии 29-30 Августа 2019г. Организатор соревнований – хорошо известная Австрийская компания «Kahles». В стремлении победить,  соперничали достаточно искушенные в стрельбе на дальние дистанции  64 участника из  17 стран Европы.  Основные претенденты на звание победителя  – опытные стрелки, прошедшие отборочные матчи в Европейских Кубках «Kahles»,  и занявшие в них  1-3 места.   Они в течение двух дней  под палящим солнцем, при температуре воздуха  от  +24 до +32С,  с ветром от 2,5 до 5м/сек, преодолевали  двенадцать рубежей на пути к успеху. Дистанций, ближе 400 метров не было ни в одном упражнении. Самая дальняя дистанция стрельбы была 1200 метров.  Встречались и неожиданные задачи, на решение которых отводилось мало времени.  Более подробно об этом можно будет прочитать  в отчете на сайте ФВСР, и возможно в журнале «Клуба Горных охотников». В прошедших соревнованиях, впервые, номинация ФВСР «Sniping  LR 1200m» обрела международный формат. Список номинантов пополнился четырьмя обладателями награды:#10 Janez Poll /Slovenia#11 Aco Polic /Serbia#12 Uros Komac /Slovenia#13 Oleksandr Nimchenko /Ukraine Убедительную победу в «Kahles Dynamic LR Challenge 2019» одержалАлександр Кравцов – 1 место (г. Москва) Призерами соревнования стали:Алексей Чернобровкин – 2 место (г. Ярославль)Сергей Емельянов – 3 место (Московская область)Искренне поздравляем наших коллег с успехом! 

Hunting in the Himalayas is considered to be one of the most difficult mountain hunts. First of all, it is physically heavy and requires serious physical training of the body for loads and high altitude. It is also important for many hunters, that this hunt requires lots of time and not everyone can afford it. The idea to go hunting in Nepal arose in 2016 - I was ready for that adventure mentally and physically. But my work schedule turned out to be completely unprepared, it was too stressful at that time to spend a lot of time on the trip. I had to postpone everything for a year and find a little free time in a series of working days to realize my dream. The situation seemed to be going well – I paid for the upcoming hunt and rearranged the schedule so as to spend several days in April there. But then force majeure intervened in the plans, which competent lawyers always try to put into contracts. A ban on the import of weapons into the country was introduced due to the state elections in Nepal in 2017, it was during my hunting. So, I had to cancel the trip. The hunt did not take place again. But! I met Maxim Vorobyov, who brought my long-awaited dream to life after a year, in April 2018. The departure date was set for April 2. That day was very convenient for me for various reasons, but circumstances forced me to postpone the flight for three days – on April 5. Moreover, the question of postponing or even canceling the trip arose again on the eve of departure (April 4). The reason was still the same - lack of time.  I made the final decision not to cancel the trip after Maxim, had contacted Nepalese outfitter Amrid, who assured us that the hunt could be carried out in a couple of days, since we would be in places where there were large populations of both Himalayan tahr and blue sheep. In my heart , I was really waiting for such an argument to succumb to temptation and try to achieve a goal that had been eluding for two years. So, the journey began on April 7, 2018. Maxim Vorobyov and cameraman Alexander Rozhkov and I had extremely little time, just one week for everything, including the road to the hunting area and back. Now it seems an outright adventure, but then I haven't known about it. First of all I flew from Yekaterinburg to Moscow, then from Moscow to Doha, and only then from Doha to the capital of Nepal. I've already heard from Maxim and other hunters that the Kathmandu airport is not the fastest customs control procedure in the world, but in our case, it was also associated with an unsuccessful arrival time. On this occasion, I would like to advice the hunters: if you are going to hunt in Nepal with your weapons, I recommend to fly there on weekdays, when all the officials whose signatures you will need will be at their workplaces. The second advice is to choose early arrival flights, since it will take a whole day to customs clearance your weapons at the airport and visit the local city administration, where the local officers will work hard to get your temporary hunting permit. Each of these mandatory procedures will take at least 4-5 hours. Our trouble was that the plane arrived in the afternoon, and it was not possible to issue all the necessary documents for the transportation of weapons around the country until 5pm (the time of the end of the officials' work). Thus, we had to leave it in the airport's luggage room for the night. In addition to the "customs clearance" of weapons, all people who arrive in Kathmandu will have to register their arrival at the airport terminal, then buy a visa and pass passport control with a purchase receipt. The procedure wasn't difficult, but there were a lot of evening flights, and we stood in a long line. After some time, my companions and I began to observe a curious picture: the line was miraculously moving while we were standing motionless in place. There was no inexplicable miracle – we just discovered the peculiarities of the local color, when the most experienced travelers bypassed the line and didn't stand in it. After the airport, Amrid conducted a short sightseeing tour of Kathmandu, then there was dinner and rest at the hotel.  At 8 a.m. the next day (It was on April 9), I had to go for weapons. The best variant there is to accept fate and doesn't rush things, because the latter is a completely thankless occupation here. But it seemed to me that it was possible and necessary to hurry them because in I was in the condition of time pressure! As a result, nerves were also wasted along with time. Nepal has a communist system, and all customs are completely in the spirit of this system. It would be very funny to observe the distribution of functionality among the "million" local officers of the customs service if we were not in a hurry. It looked something like that: Amrid provided information about the need to obtain weapons to a customs officer. He passed it to the next one. Thus, the information was transmitted four more times along the vertical of power, until it reached the leadership that owned the right to sign and seal. Then, permission to receive weapons came down to us in the reverse, exactly the same order (not a single link of this thoroughly built chain was missed). I don't have enough stock of ironic techniques to describe this action in words. You should see it! It will impress you if you see it, just believe me. After spending more than four hours as observers of the actions of the official apparatus, we arrived at the helipad – a kind of small domestic airport of regional communication. It was at about two in the afternoon. We weighed ourselves, then weighed the luggage and prepared for takeoff - the pilot, Maxim, Amid, the operator Sasha and I - a total of five people plus ammunition. We were lucky that we got a new helicopter, with only 100 hours of flight time – I had flown enough on the old ones, and I had something to compare with. Unfortunately, a strong thunderstorm that came to the destination of the area of the future base camp forced us to land about halfway to the hunting grounds, in the town of Pakkhara, where we spent the night.  The morning of the next day, April 10, brought good news – we could continue on our way, and we had already reached our destination without difficulty. We were met by a whole army, 22 people from Amrit's team. They waited us at the helipad in the mountains, there were professional hunters, sherpas, cooks and support staff among them. It was 10 am when we all started our route, headed for the mountains. The path was about 14 kilometers with a rise of 1600 meters. By 3.30 pm we reached the first camp at an altitude of 3100 meters. It was a two-hour walk to Tahr's habitat. So, we decided to spend the night there. Everybody got up early in the morning at 3 a.m. on April 11. We had breakfast and continued our way at 4 a.m. The huntsmen went ahead to reconnoiter. We followed them.  By 8 am, we reached an altitude of 3800 meters. The rangers reported that they had found the tahrs. I should climb the sheer cliff that turned out to be snow-covered and seemed slippery to me. Therefore, we decided to go around it from the side, along grassy slopes, and the operator and I went around. Maxim and Amid continued moving on wet, slippery rocks. As a result, Sasha and I went to the ridge on one side, and Maxim and Amrid on the other. The guide, who happened to be on our side, pointed to a densely growing shrub. He said that the male of tahr lay down to rest after the morning feeding there. It was necessary to wait for it to show up. The presence of shrubs was very unusual for mountains at that altitude. But the bushes were a boon for us, because they compensated largely for the lack of oxygen and facilitated oxygen starvation, which inevitably occurred when staying in the mountains for a long time at a similar altitude.  The shooting distance was 300 meters. There was no need to get closer to the animal – the distance was quite comfortable for a confident shot. It was 10am. We decided to wait. At the same time, Maxim and Amid detected four tahr's males on the other side of the slope! Time goes very slowly, when you wait. Those two hours might have been like torture, if I hadn't the opportunity to survey the surrounding mountain landscape. It was very bizarre, unlike those that had been repeatedly seen before. It was getting close to noon, but Tahr, we were waiting for, did not show any desire to make it easier for us to hunt. After conferring, we decided to move on to the three or four males that Maxim was watching. We were about to set off, when the walkie-talkie worked and reported that the company of four tahrs had disappeared from view. The weather began to grow worse – it began to snow, and a few minutes later a real blizzard with gusty winds began to spin. The time was approaching 3 pm when I suggested to Amrid to frighten the resting tahr from the shelter. Amrid ordered, and one of the guides approached the animal as close as possible and threw a stone in its direction. I was preparing for a shot at 300 m, but suddenly I discovered that the sight was fogged up! It was already impossible to stop what was happening – tahr rushed away from its hiding place, and I could only see its muddy silhouette. I took aim as far as it was possible and fired… the miss. The beast disappeared from sight.  It was impossible to continue hunting in such conditions - the snow cover was about 10 cm at that moment, the time was already more than 3 pm, and it was getting dark at 6 pm in that area. We had nothing to do but pack up and go to the camp. The April 11 was ending. There was only one day left to hunt.  In the morning we got up at 5 o'clock and walked along the riverbed to the habitat of the blue ram. It was necessary to walk no more than two kilometers. We walked five km and didn't find a single sheep. The huntsman offered to climb higher. We saw a group of sheep at an altitude of 4100 meters, one of them was of decent trophy quality. The distance was 850 m. That distance had to be shortened, and one of the huntsmen and I went around, while Maxim and Amrid stayed to watch the herd and adjust our actions. The weather began to play against us once again. It began to snow; fog began to cover the space around. But we continued climbing and reached the 4350 m mark. There were four hundred meters from there to the rams, but then it turned out that the sheep were also moving, while we were approaching, and they had went 600 meters away from us. However, we knew about it from our observers, while we could not see the animals because of the fog. A little time passed, and the fog began to dissipate. Finally, I saw the sheep, but not all of them, but only five out of ten. Unfortunately, the fog again covered the neighborhood once again while we were deciding on a specimen that could be regarded as a trophy. We had to wait for it to lift again for 30-40 minutes. But we waited in vain - the sheep disappeared with the fog. I had to go down to Maxim and Amrid with empty hands.   It wasn't hard to imagine what we talked about when we got together. So, my expectations to get two trophies in two days were not fulfilled. It is clear that this is hunting, and it is impossible to plan everything, nature has its own laws. Moreover, it was too presumptuous to count on a quick hunt in Nepal! Nepal is not Europe at all and not even the Caucasus! You should take much more time for hunting there. I had no doubt that the decision to go there for two days was reckless and extremely adventurous! Hunting in Nepal is not a "weekend hunt" at all.  It might seem to the reader that my self-flagellation occurred in a state of humility with the prevailing circumstances, in a kind of sad sadness. Not at all – I was still hoping for something, and therefore my nerves were on edge. And why shouldn't I hope?! Theoretically, if we had been a little more lucky, I could have already got both a tahr and a sheep. But we were not. It was hardly possible to correct the situation - the time that I could afford to devote to hunting was rapidly running out. The maximum that could be done was to spend another day there- April 13. But I had to be in Yekaterinburg on April 15th. So it was unlikely that we would be able to do something in time. Although we could do a lot more during the whole day, and we still had almost half of April 12.– it was only 11 am. We just needed only a little bit of luck… And then the guides reported on the radio that he had found sheep. We descended quickly to a height of 4000 m and spotted the group of animals, among which were young and females. You are probably familiar with the condition referred to as "confusion of feelings". How could I put into words the cascade of emotions that engulfed me at that moment?! We found sheep!!! Damn, there were only young males and females… What if? And what if we looked closely?! And we took a closer look, and found a large male among the herd after careful consideration! The distance was 292 m, the angle was 18 degrees. I quickly prepared for the shot and did not even wait for the ram to turn sideways – it stood with its back, arching its spine and lowering the head to the grass. I shot to its spin. It ran few meters and fell down. The bullet hit into its shoulder blade. The shot rang out at about 12.10, my trophy became a 10-year-old bharal. It was a miracle! An hour ago, our entire group had complete disappointment from a failed hunt, self-torture for unreasonable actions, a desire to anoint ourselves with ashes. And suddenly everything changed, it turned out that a miracle was possible - to take a blue sheep in Nepal for two days of hunting! The photo session with the trophy was quick –we couldn't miss the moment, and we went to look for Tahr now that luck had turned to face us. The guides told us while we were moving to their habitats, that they had seen a very large tahr in the morning, but they weren’t sure whether it remained in place or not. We decided to stop at the camp, to have rest for few moments. At 3.30 pm, we moved towards the gorge, where we observed the tahr yesterday. It was good that we rested before – the path was difficult I had to climb the steep cliff that was bypassed last time, since there was very little time left before sunset. I won't hide the fact that the guides helped us. I gave the carbine to the senior guide not to lose speed, because the weight of the carbine was 12 kilograms. However, when I reached the top , it turned out that the rock was not so steep as it seemed from below. The stones were dry, and the soles did not slip. It was safer to climb than yesterday. Unfortunately, there was no tahr on the slope. We went to the next one. And I experienced a real euphoria there! The lonely tahr was grazing the grazing grass three hundred meters away from me.   I measured the distance - it was 300 meters; the angle of inclination was 10 degrees. The distance was short, the angle of inclination was easy, the only difficulty was that the color of the male merged with the color of the terrain, and I could not find it through the sight at the beginning. But I found! I didn't wait for it to turn sideways like the previous time. The bullet hit the shoulder blade, but did not damage vital organs. The male ran down. Unfortunately for it, it ran to our direction. I was above him and fired again, but didn't notice a branch that was the bullet's path. It slightly touched the animal, but did not stop it. And only the third shot turned out to be the final one – the tahr approached 200 meters, and I sent the bullet straight into the animal's head. My trophy became fourteen years old male. Then there were congratulations, a state of elation and happiness. I felt that I was extraordinary lucky – I managed to take trophies of both a blue sheep and a Himalayan tahr in one day, what was a rare exception for Nepal. The maximum task was completed, the hunt was completed… We returned to the camp in a wonderful mood. Wo had to wait for the Sherpas to deliver the trophy of tahr to the camp – dusk was coming, and it was not possible to lower the trophy from the sheer cliff on their own. But Sherpas did not appear even after dinner. I had to go to bed – in the morning it was necessary to get ready and move out to the helipad. But they hadn't returned to the camp yet when I got up in the morning. However, there was no need to worry – Amrid explained that the tahr was so big that even Sherpas cannot deliver it to the camp. They lowered the animal to the river and promised to deliver it to the place on our way where it would be possible to take pictures with it. At 9 am we set out and we saw the trophy after 3 kilometers from the base. We examined slowly all the hits: the first was in the shoulder blade, the second passed tangentially due to the ricochet, and the third clearly had to be in the head. Then we made the photo shoot and continued our walk to the helipad. This eighteen-kilometer crossing took 10 hours. The total climb for the day was 2,610 meters. It was dark when we got to the helipad.  A helicopter arrived early in the morning, we loaded meat, ammunition, and people. As a result, it was quite difficult to get off the ground. However, we got to Kathmandu without any adventures. Thus, on April 15 I flew to Moscow to move from the capital to Yekaterinburg on the same day. Already at home, we watched the video made when Maxim was watching 4 tahrs, that grazed on a steep cliff on the first day of hunting. We would never know why those animals disappeared from view if not for that record.  As it turned out, the quietly grazing tahrs became worried, sensed some kind of danger, and then disappeared quickly. A minute after that, a snow leopard jumped out of the bushes and rushed to chase them. The camera captured that moment! I could get the Tahr trophy on the first day if that attack hadn't happened!  But let's leave everything in the past, everything a has turned out the way as it has turned out. And I was very happy with the result. I was even grateful to that leopard, because the animals in that group were only seven and nine years old, and I ended up with a gigantic mature fourteen-year-old tahr.  In conclusion, I would like to sum up some results. I spent a week on the whole trip: there and back. On April 10, we arrived to a helipad in the mountains and on April 14 in the morning we flew back from it. I spent four full days in the mountains, taking into account that the road took two full days. Two days of hunting. It is not always possible to get a trophy in such a period even in Europe. It was an adventurous, extreme, bright hunt with decent accompaniment and organization, beautiful trophies and a storm of emotions that will remain in memory for a lifetime! I would like to express my gratitude to Maxim Vorobyov, Amrid and his entire team for the impeccable organization of the hunt. I would love to return there onve again, as I received a warm welcome, professional and high-quality work. It is very pleasant to be among professionals – you feel confident among them.

Lactate (lactic acid), generated by our body in the result of anaerobic synthesis during the strength training, and hydrogen ions which acidify muscles (they bind oxygen) disrupt the process of the energy formation. The aerobic process of getting energy goes during the endurance training (usually about two hours in a gym). Lactate doesn’t form much in such cases. Your activity level, when you are hunting in the mountains, is much higher than in the gym and Lactate will generate. It means that in a definite moment the aerobic actively will transform into anaerobic ones, and low level of oxygen content is one of the reasons. If you didn’t train well before, the accumulation of lactate in tissues would lead to premature fatigue, you couldn't move. I guess most of you know that feeling when you can’t move and have jelly legs. It's dangerous because we can easily damage ligament and tendons in such moments. Next few days you feel cutting pains in muscles and it doesn’t’ add you extra speed on the slopes. All sportsmen, engaged in sports related with endurance, have strength trainings in their programs. I won’t describe in details the program of bodybuilding but can tell that the individual who is sedentary can increase the power indicators from 20 to 100% in a year of regular trainings. Some people who have gene I2 (responsible for outstanding physical abilities) can get even better results. The muscle memory forms on the initial stage. Each muscle consists of the thousands of muscle fibers. The percentage of innervating fibers isn’t high when you just starts to make the new exercise. Then in the process the muscle adapt to the exercise and more of them include into it. After these programs will burn into the brain, they are called engrams, and you could reach the first success in increasing of muscle’s strength. The further improvement can be achieved by training, sport feed or drugs. Engrams form when you train for endurance. Taking into account that we go up and down in the mountains, we have to use simulators which can offer same conditions. You can regulate the angle of inclination on the treadmill and the elliptical trainer and go up on the stepper. You have to remember that all simulators work with the definite muscles while we use all of them when climb or walk. It means that when you run, jump on the stones or fall into deep snow you stimulate the muscles about which haven’t suspect before. Some of us, who have been hurt while training, know that the injured parts lose strength and volume soon. If some of you break the arm, the most part of the muscle will atrophy in twenty day. The scientists say that two weeks without training is enough to lose the results which you’ve got training in a several months. It's proved that one strenght training per week is enough to stay in a good form. If we talke about trainings for endurance you’ll need to work harder. You have to remember about it and to find time for physical exercises in your schedule. You also have to know that muscles are in four times heavier than fat. I’d lost weight making aerobic exercises and swimming but then added a couple of strength trainings in a week. I was highly motivated because noticed the results, the body size decreased but I didn’t weight myself for a few months. Imagine my surprise when I did it and found three more kilos. The doctor explained me that the composition of my body had changed: the heavy muscle replaced the light fat. I didn’t expect it at all. The decision was evident to reduce the number of the strength trainings. I think to abandon them at all and practice CrossFit. This complex includes the strength part and a block of aerobic exercises. But you have to practice such sport, which are based on the training different parts of muscles in a short period of time, only after a long period of adaptation. The tempo of these exercises burns all glycogen in twenty minutes, the oxygen synthesis from fat demands time and lots of free oxygen, which isn’t in your body when we train in such intensive way. So you can fell dizziness, weakness, etc. The adaptation period will help you to increase the number of glycogen, which is the main fuel and feed in our body. It’s the derivative of glucose.Its chemical composition is carbohydrate. So you need to eat carbohydrate when train hard or when you are in the mountains. I’ll write about it in the article “Nutrition in the mountains”. One more advice, If you want to lose weight It’d be better not to eat fast carbs, including all sweets and flour products. They absorbed into the blood very fast and all extra energy which you don’t use are transformed into the fat. I advise to replace these products to the so called long carbs- different types of cereals. They are slowly digested and transfer to our bloodstream by doses and our metabolism works in the sparing mode. It’s known that our liver and muscles have the stored glycogen of 2000 Ccal, what corresponds to physical activity like running for 32 km. We have the stored fat for 70 000 Ccal but it’s more difficult to extract energy from fat because the one molecule from glycogen makes much more ATF ( adenosine triphosphate is an elementary energy unit in our body) than from fat. Oxygen delivery to our body in the mountains is limited by the opportunities of our respiratory and circulatory system and the low partial pressure on the heights. You have to remember that if you train regular for the long period, the glycogen level increase. It could increase in 100%. We know that oxygen, glycogen, fat, amino acids and proteins are important parts of the nutrition system but all chemical reactions are done with the help of enzymes – catalysts. The sportsmen have such active compounds in 2-4 times more than untrained people. The nutrition for our body is glycogen (carbs derivatives), fat acid (fat), amino acids and creatine phosphoric acid (as the part of protein). Biosynthesis-oxidation and energy production in mitochondria (energy station in the body cells), is due to oxygen and enzymes. The oxidative potential of slow twitch muscles (STM) is higher than the fast ones. It depends on the number of mitochondria’s because the all processes are in them. If you practice the endurance training the number of your STM and mitochondria’s would increase and the oxidative potential too. Oxygen is the main energy source in our body. It directly connects with the oxidative metabolism. The right level of O2 in our body will influence to the process of nutrition synthesis. And it depends on the respiratory and circulatory system. The optimal ratio of nutrients, enzymes, oxidative capacity and the amount of oxygen give the main indicator of physical capabilities, which is called maximal oxygen consumption (VO2Max). The scientists say that the muscle metabolism grows during the training process. The only limit of its growth is the lack of oxygen. Your body needs more oxygen for producing energy when you train. The respiratory and circulatory systems with the help of endocrine (controlling the release of hormones) and nervous systems increase the heart rates The changes in the circulatory system are quite significant. They tough the heart rate, cardiac output (the volume of blood transported by the heart per unit of time), blood flow (the capillary network), blood (volume and composition), systolic blood volume (the actual volume of the left ventricle), blood pressure. Maximum heart rate is a constant, calculated by formula 220 minus your age. It means that HR max for twenty years old men is 200 bpm but for the 40 years old man, it’s 180 bpm. When you train, the systolic blood volume and the volume of ventricle increase, the walls of the heart muscles thicken and the cardiac output grows and tissue are supplied by nutrients and oxygen. The output of metabolic products also grows. 80% of blood goes to the internal organs and 20% to the muscles when we are in the dormant state. When we are active, the blood formula changes and 85% from the whole blood goes to the muscles using the capillaries’ system. Trainings help to increase the network of these tiny vessels. Long-term endurance training changes the blood composition. At first the total blood volume grows due to the plasma. The total volume can increase to 30% or to 1.5 L. The athletes can notice the increase in the level of red blood cells especially if they train on the heights in the mountains. Our body reacts to the low partial pressure of oxygen at altitude. When we are actively move, the body produces lot of heat and part of our blood reallocates to integument and goes to the capillaries’ system. All of these factors plus the high oxygen ions , acidify the muscles, they don’t have enough nutrients. That is the reason why the sportsmen show not good results in all kinds of sports when it’s hot. Don’t be shy to take off warm clothes and membranes which slow the ventilation of your body. The overheat deprive of strength ourselves. Overheating leads to the heat stroke and it’s dangerous to the health and life. That’s why we don’t advice to use rubber clothing if you want to lose weight. Sweating isn’t the right way to do it. We have to lose heat by the conversion and emission. We lose not only water but sodium ions, chlorine and potassium when sweating. It has negative influence to our body. The blood thickens, the metabolic processes slow down. If you train regulary, your body adapt to it and release the hormones which delays the excretion of water through the kidneys, and binds sodium and chlorine. The professional athlete lose in 60% less of ions than the beginner. The ventilation increases in proportion to exercise. The ions H and CO2 inhibit the synthesis of ATF and the reduction of muscle fibers. We breathe more often to normalizes the process of metabolism. The sportsmen, who make breath exercises, have the increased chest and lung volume that grows their physical ability and endurance. The volume of respiratory ventilation of the professional sportsman, for examples the rower, can be more than 240L per minute. It’s in two times more than the untrained person has. All these changes, which happens with us when we regular train, come to the positive results and increase our cardiorespiratory endurance. You can’t get the progress without it, even if you have trained muscles. The right way to increase cardiorespiratory endurances is to train in the pulse zone, which is 70-80% from maximum. You need to make it not less than two times in a week. If you go to the gym, visit the high intensity group lessons such as trekking or RPM. You can also use any of the cardio machines and choose the effective load. Cardiorespiratory endurance allows our body to withstand long-term load. I prefer to visit the group lessons because it’s difficult enough to boost the pulse to 170 bpm when you train alone. The scientists suggested to use the maximum oxygen consumption (VO2max) to estimate the endurance. This the objective indicator shows your cardiorespiratory endurance and the speed of your metabolic processes when you are active. The high level of VO2Max means that you are more durable and your body needs less effort to satisfy the increasing demands of your body when your train or work hard. The untrained man could increase by 95% his VO2Max if he start to exercise. Six month training process, which includes three 30 minutes endurance trainings per week, will grow your VO2Max to 20-25%. In practice it means that your heart rate will be down. You will lose less calories training on the high heart rate because the cardiovascular and respiratory system will quickly restore after exercises (heart rate will decrease faster). After six month of active aerobic exercises I lost calories in two times less than when I started, but the intensity and maximum pulse didn't change. You can see on the Garmin diagram that I rode the bike in August in Spain and wasted in 40% more energy than when I rode the same route (similar time and speed) later. It’s not the limit. On average a man reaches his maximum is 18 month of regular trainings. You can see the progress if compare the heart rate in the resting state. The untrained person has about 70 bpm. I had 72 bpm when I’ve started and 56 bpm after the six month of trainings. The professional sportsmen have 30 bpm! But there is one unpleasant nuance. You would gain weight faster if you use to overeat because the hard trainings stimulates your body to hold fat. And you’ll need to work in two times harder if you want to lose calories. We know about fat guys who have been fitness gurus not long time ago. You need to adjust the diet if don’t want to gain extra kg. There are some exceptions but I’ll tell about them later. The highlands with its low partial oxygen pressure influences on VO2Max. The scientists with Griffith Paf have established empirically that the height to 1600 masl don’t influence to our VO2Max but every next vertical km deducts 11% from our VO2Max. Good news is that our body can adapt to it but not in the gym. I fully agree with the scientists physiologists Saltan and Rowell who say that the growth of our the capillary network in the muscles will lead to the enhancement of VO2Max. It happens because the muscles are provided by oxygen and nutrients. The adaptation of the skeletal muscles is the results of the increase in the number of mitochondria’s. The additional bonus is the reduction of the heart pressure, it’s very important for hypertensives because of increasing the capillary network and, a greater outflow of blood into the tissues. The adaptation speed depends on genes. Choose the right parents if you want to become the Olympic champion! The international group of scientist researched genotypes of three different groups of people: stayers, sprinters and non-athletes. They found the clear difference in gen NRF2 in one of this gene’s alleles. No sprinters, no ordinary people didn’t have such allele. I’ve mentioned above that we all have different numbers of slow and fast muscle fibers. But don’t despair we can improve our endurance by regular trainings. Probably you won’t become champions but feel better in the mountains. Differences in susceptibility to the training process depends on our individual features. The same exercises will have different effect to different people, that’s why we need the coach who can help and correct the process. Don’t forget about the “the principle of specificity». The test group swam in the pool for one hour several times per week during the six month. The average swimming increased to 18% while the running just in 2%. Train the muscles which you’ll need in the mountains, I talk about legs first.

I’ve got the marmot from the distance 2010 meters. The hunt took place on July 23rd in the Rostov region, Millerovo area, farm Hmagovo. I used 338 LM, 300 gr. Berger OTM, 910 м/с. ShmitBender 5x25x56 PM2. The gun GM from Gennady Kozhaev. The corrector was Vladimir Grebenuk. I set the previous record in 2011 and it was 1629 meters but in a couple of years it had been broken. The Club -2000 meters is opened now!

We arrived to the hospitable  land of the North  Ossetia (Alania) where wanted to hunt for the Dagestan Tur and the Caucasian Chamois. Out team included me, the outfitter of this trip, the hunter from Nakhodka- Kanatakbek Kurmangaliev, the member of the MHC and one more hunter from Khabarovsk- Leonid Kazantzev. The guys were younger than I was but didn’t have such hunting experience in the Caucasus mountains.  I gave them some advices how to be in good physical form and what equipment was needed. They started to train in a half of the year before. Kanatbek hunted in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan and Altay but told me later that this trip had surpassed all the expectations about the complexity of the mountain’s hunts. You can see it if read to the end. It’s a great pleasure to meet old friends.  The staff whom I knew long years met us on the base “High Saniba”.  All people who work there take care about the guests and the whole atmosphere there is always very friendly.  We arrived to the base in the late evening but the traditional Ossetia feast waited for us.  The chief of the local hunting company Tzara Sozanov and his wife Natasha met us and  sat at the richly laid Ossetian table.  We had tasty dinner, talked about the past hunts and gave the hunters recommendations about the future ones. It is priceless to be surrounded by people who share your interest and are close in spirit. But it was too late and we had to go to bed and have rest before the next hunting day.  We decided to check guns in the morning while will be waiting for the guides’ arrival and then to go to the mountains. Next morning we got acquaintance with two American hunters who arrived earlier than we arrived. One of them Ron was 58 years old, he was in good form and was very friendly, another one was younger- 54 years old but he  was overweighed though full of enthusiasm to hunt in the mountains. So all together we went for hunt after the lunch. I’d been in Jimara not once and knew this region.   I'd climbed by one of its slopes  with the hunter Zhaysan Syzdykov and described it in one of my reports.  We came to the place where had to divided into two groups. I thought that my huntes and I would go the same way which I walked with Zhaysan. It was the hard way and hunters had to be in the good physical form.  We would ascend at night and the complexity level was even higher. I did it many times but even I  couldn’t imagine what would happen later. The Americans were inferior to  our physical conditions and the guides, after the  heated debates, decided to change the plan and to lead them along the most gentle slope. We got the most difficult route out of those I hiked in Ossetia. So we went. At 7 pm we  set the mobile camp, had short lunch and went to sleep. The fog  came down from the glacial  to the valley where we stopped and  our cloth got wet. We woke up at 10.30 pm , packed the clothe to the backpacks, left some equipment  in the cars which we closed and went to the mountains.  The stars glittered on the anthracite-black sky, the Gypsy sun slightly showed from behind the mountains and hid. I felt the scattering of boulders under the feet , which constantly touched the socks of mountain shoes. We had lights but didn’t use them because tried to observe the secrecy in case of meeting turs. In 40 minutes we came to the mountains foot and needed to climb 2000 meters. We began from the height 1000 masl. I saw several glacial afar. The guys didn’t know and I preferred not to tell them that the notorious glacial Kolka, which descended into the Karmadon valley, was behind the next ridge. I realized that we weren’t there but their looms reminded us how  formidable they can be. The valley ended and we began to climb. Good for us that it was night and we couldn’t see its steepness.  If I saw in in the daylights I couldn’t be sure that it’d be possible to rise by such vertical slope. We three and our  guides started at 11 pm and climbed at 6am. We clambered by the stone loose, slippery from the frozen condensate on the surface of the stones, and  sharp rocks. We supported and helped each other each time when the fellow who climbed first rolled back or when stones rolled under our feet. Our climb looked so, we made one step ahead and two steps back. Legs and hands were in high tension and the pulse was out of the norm. The most dangerous thing was that we did it all in the darkness. The guides lost the way two or three times and couldn’t find the pass among the rocks. So we  came back and went around. I have huge experience of climbing in the mountains of Kamchatka and Pamir but they always took place during the light hours but there we did everything at night. I organized many of hunts and spent lots of  hours in the mountains with the foreign hunters but had never been in such dangerous situation. I’m not sure that most of foreign hunters can stand of that.  Most of them in such situations would curse me in a half an hour after the climb have started and would go back to the cars. Unfortunately I had such experience too.  The only exclusion is the Norway hunters. They are very strong and endurance guys. Once I climbed the steep slope in the Sayan Mountains with the young Norwegian hunter. We carried not only necessary equipment but  several tanks of water because there wasn’t water on the top. But the situation there was better because we could cling to the tread of mountain boots. The mountains were covered by the forest and bushes. The landscape on Jimara  consisted of the rocks of different sizes from the huge stones to the gravel. I was happy that was accompanied by the young Russian guys (even with the Kazakh roots) and with the Russian hardening. At 4am we heard  a crash. The part of the glacier broke away and rushed down with the booming roar. It fell to the place where we left our cars. In a few minutes we heard one more crash. We all felt Goosebumps. We often stopped to take the breath because sometimes it seemed to me that my heart could break the chest. We went up to 3000masl. At 4.30 the guide who went with the American hunters contacted with us and told very mournful news which made us to think about the sense of life and reality. One of the American hunters died! It happened that according his health he had not even approach to the mountains. Silence fall, we couldn’t see each other but felt the tension and worried about our college- hunter. The guides in that group knew what to do in such situations. We stayed there some time trying to realize what had happened. After a pause and  we paid tribute to the departed in the world of "eternal hunt" hunter and continued our hard way. Life goes on and it doesn’t stop when somebody dies and we can’t change it We had to be in a hurry if wanted to be in the right place in the right time.    I remember the words of the well know song, written by Vysotsky. l   “And others will come and change the warmth   For risk and this trial of work   They’ll follow the abandoned route of yours” We went by touch to the top of the gorge Jimara  and soon noticed the lights of Vladikavkaz. The city lived its life, we trekked our way. At the sunrise we estimated what way we overcame yet. Somebody could be dizzy just looking at the way which we has passed already. Close to the top the path became more gentle but the height was 3500 masl and some of us felt the oxygen deficiency. We climbed at last. The guides observed the opposite slopes where as they thoughts males could be but didn’t find anyone. We went be the slope and some female turs with cubs ran across in 200m in front of us. We hid behind the huge stone and waited for males. We spent about an hour at that place. Piercing wind used any crack in our cloth and we was cold. When we made the decision where we’ wait for the males I insisted on changing the clothe to the dry and warm one which we had with us. I always try to take extra dry cloth when go  to the mountains and my experienced helped us that time. Suddenly we noticed the herd of 50 -60 males which moved to our side from the opposite ridge. Aslan and Jamal led the hunters to the shooting position while I stayed on the place and observed. I could see the river of turs which flown from the opposite slope. The river consisted of animals of different ages. The sight from the side was fascinating. The shooting distance was very comfortable about 70 metes. When the first trophy size male appeared from behind the slope Kanatbek shot and got his trophy. The animals ran to different sizes not understanding what was going on. Leonid shot twice and seriously wounded his trophy but it could ran behind the ridge. We didn’t find it that day. Then we made pictures, had short lunch, packed meat and went back to the camp. It wasn’t comfortable to stay there longer. It was out of the question to go down by the same way as we climbed.  The descend was even more dangerous  and we could fall into the gorge. The guides chose the next slope but even there the way down wasn’t the easy walk. The climb took us 7 hours and 5 hours we went down. We went with extra weight and carry meat. The guides detected birds which circled in the sky above the spot in the direction where the wounded tur ran. It’s a sign that the animal is over. We calmed Leonid who worried about this shot. Next day the guides found his trophy and took it to the base. Leonid got one more trophy Chamois at the last hunting day.Totally we trekked with backpacks 13 hours. In the conclusion I’d say the I had never had such hard climb in my life.  Even our guides didn’t expect that it would be so hard. The average angle of our climb was about 50 degrees and sometimes we crawled literally on all fours on the slopes and rocks on the 70-degree slope. BUT! WE HAVE ALL OVERCOME ON THE WAY TO THE TREASURED AND HONORABLE TROPHY!!! Thank you very much to our guides Aslan, Jamal and Giy. My personal thanks to Tzar Sozanov and his wife Natasha for their hospitality during that trip. The hunt didn’t take much time but has the highest level of complexity. I can’t compare any hunt with that one. Later I talked with some locals and they didn’t believe that we used that way and could climb there. But a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

The readers of our magazine and members of the MHC know Asif Ilyasov by his rare articles and pictures in our edition. I like his photographs and was surprised to learn that he didn’t study how to make photo reports. He has the talent to see the world in an unusual perspective.Asif can really surprise you. Being a young guy , he focused his ambition on becoming the sportsman. He was born in Sheki, one among the few towns in Azerbaijan which located in the spurs of the North Caucasus. He dreamed to become the sportsman from his childhood and his parents Akif Gul oglu and Elena Grigorievna – encouraged his passion. Asif graduated the Academy of the Physical "and started to work in the Army Sport Club. He was involved in martial arts (Boxing, kick-Boxing, Taekwondo, Brazilian JIU-jitsu), and later became a member of Azerbaijan's national team in Rugby. Once taking part in one of the competitions he met his adherent and future business partner Faik Babanly. Faik was the champion of Azerbaijan and the winner of the international competitions in MMA. In a few years they both will organize the company which is well-known among the mountain hunters all over the world - Global Safari Azerbiajan. But before it they hunted a lot in their country and in other countries.Active sport life is short and once you have to choose what to do next. At 2003 our friends and one more guy Nariman Zulfigirov created the company "Musado". The main goal of it was to organize mountains hunting trips. They made hunts for the waterfowls and Dagestan turs. All rules and principles how it worked they learned from their own experience, from their own mistakes and achievements.In 2004 the friends hunted in Africa. They had chosen Namibia and were really surprises that hunting there wasn’t so easy as people used to think. It was a tough hunt and they spent lots of time looking for the trophies but came home very happy and with trophies. That trip helped them to understand what they needed.After that they had been in about 100 countries in Africa, North America, Asia, Europe, Oceania but feel the special love to the Black continent. If they want to feel how the adrenaline boils in the veins they fly to the jungles of South America. They are fond the hot, the abundance of poisonous snakes, when the only way to go ahead is to cut it by machete. Such conditions look very attractive to our friends because there they can check their skills to live, the Nature tests your ability to survive, your physician and physiological conditions. They both didn’t give up training and are in excellent physical form.The 16 years passed how they started their business and become the professionals. Now they can estimate the quantity of the trophy looking to it through the optics and even can define by the one look to the picture in what region of Azerbaijan and when it was done.In 2007 they created their own company Global Safari Azerbaijan. Most of foreign hunters including the members of our Club such as V. Reznik, S. Yastrzhembsky, V. Eliseev, S. Mazurkiewicz, W. Kim, V. Gorb, L. Palko, I. Rayevsky, S. Puzinkevich, S. Volochkovich, A. Kim, hunted with them. They have done a lot but never stop. The State gave them new hunting areas in 2018 what means new record's trophies and new responsivities and less of time. But they both try to find it for the hobbies. Faik is fond of taxidermy and think over the future compositions while hunting. Asif makes hunting movies and nice pictures. There are about 100 hinting videos in his collections and he can’t account the number of pictures.Asif didn’t study photography but get these skill during the trips. He was awarded and not once by the hunting magazines in our country and different counties too. It’s a pity but he hasn’t enough time to devote it to this hobby.I asked Asif about his dream and was surprised when knew that he wanted to hunt for the Golden takin. This animals inhabits in China and the hunt for it is prohibited. So the dream has to be unrealizable, but leaving hope.

From the editior: We wrote and not once what medicine the mountain hunter has to have in his kit but we all have our own preferences and understanding what they’ll need at first. Ali Aliev whom you all know shares his experience. The medical kit of the mountain hunter is the same like the kit of the usual hunter but with some additions. It’d be better to divide the medicine chests to the kits for the mountain hunts and universal kits. The last one has to be separated to the stationary kit which better to leave in the camp and the mobile one which you have always to take with you. You need to remember about all surprises which can happen in the mountains and about the situations when you can’t get the professional help in time. Thus the mobile medicine kit has to be the obligatory part of your equipment. I have repeatedly had to make sure of this. I have to add that the usage of some drugs ask for the special knowledge and skills. It applies to injections and surgical interventions. If you don’t know what to do, better not to risk or you can make harm. “Stationary”.   My Main Kit is based on the auto medice kit. I have the special box which was in the car which I’ve bought in Germany. The container is very sturdy and I always take it with me. The composition of the kit is so:   1.         Sanitizers – hydrogen peroxide (universal antiseptic broad spectrum, great for handling and washing of external wounds); as the additional stock – the pack of peroxide (peroxide tablets that can be diluted); Bactine (stronger medication for burns and abrasions and skin lesions); antiseptic plasters of different types and purpose (usually sold in sets); alcohol wipes (for wiping and cleaning the skin before the injection); wet wipes (for personal hygiene); furatsilin (for gargling and wound treatment). 2.         Anestatic and anti shock medicene – Spazmalgon (replacement of obsolete analgin – combined analgesic and antispasmodic: head, kidney, dental, post-traumatic pain); Ketonal (stronger pain medication broad-spectrum, effective, proven itself – in fractures and severe injuries); No-Spa ( from spasms of various nature); lidocaine in ampoules (local anaesthetic injections). 3.         From the heartache Validol- (a mild sedative with a vasodilator effect); nitroglycerin (stronger medication to prevent vasospasm, but you need to keep in mind that this drug usually causes a severe headache. 4.         Antipyretics – acetylsalicylic acid, or aspirin (used also in the cases of the "mountain" disease and as a blood-thinning agent); paracetamol (analgesic-antipyretic, has analgesic, antipyretic and weak anti-inflammatory effect); "Coldrex", "Theraflu" and the other like these ones (comprehensive preventive medications, good for all types of colds and their symptoms). 5.         Against intoxication, acute diarrhea – activated carbon (enterosorbiruyuschee, detoxification and anti-diarrhea remedy, has a high surface activity, absorbs poisons and toxins from the gastrointestinal tract); amigal (the medicine which destroys all microorganisms, and protozoa); chloramphenicol (also destroys pathogens in the gut); the colibacterin bifidobakterin, bifikol, "Bifiform", "Linex" and analogues to choose from (an effective means to restore the normal microflora of the intestine, especially the last two drugs). 6.         From pain in the joints and spine (neuralgia, rheumatism) – Ketonal, diclofenac gel (effective analgesic); finalgon (vasodilator analgesic for external use, local action). 7.         From burns, scuffs – panthenol (used to accelerate healing in case of damage to the skin and mucous membranes of various origins: abrasions, thermal and sunburn, aseptic postoperative wounds, scuffs, dermatitis); cream "Boro Plus" (effective remedy for scuffs). 8.         Antihistamines – suprastin (a powerful remedy for allergies, insect bites and snakes, the first remedy for anaphylactic shock, unlike tavegil does not have a hypnotic effect). 9.         Antibiotics – Sumamed (a powerful broad-spectrum antibiotic from almost any bacterial infections, it relies antifungal drug fluconazole). 10.       Digestive enzymes – festal (a combined drug that will allow you to digest steel scrap, is very effective after eating in roadside cafes). 11.       Antihypertonic – andipal (helps to reduce blood pressure). "First aid" in hypertension – capoten. 12.       Sedatives – Valerian extract. 13.       From abrasions and wounds – ointment "Spasatel". 14.       Sunscreen SPF 30, protective lipstick 15.       Dressing material – sterile and non-sterile bandages, elastic bandages, sterile napkins, cotton wool, all kinds of plasters antiseptic, corn, water resistant and alcohol wipes for injection 16.       Tools – small surgical set: scalpel with replaceable blades, clamps, tweezers, the set of catguts with needles, a plait, sterile gloves, syringes for 2, 5 and 10 ml. 17.       Balm "Star» 18.       Baby powder   Mobile   Mountains don’t like when people treat them not seriously. I saw it and not once. The mountain hunt for the grouses didn’t foretell anything dramatic but it could be worse if I didn’t have the mobile kit. The hunting on the leks in the mountains isn’t the same like hunting on the plain. We spent 3 days while found the lek which was located on the altitude 2500-2600 masl and in a few hours walk from the camp and 1000 meters of the height difference. But it worth it. We left the camp at 2 am and rode by horses while it was possible. The animals fall deep into the snow and we had to ride around the most dangerous places. Suddenly on one of the rocky places the horse of my fellow stumbled and he could not stay in the saddle and fell under the hooves of a frightened animal. The result is a comminuted fracture of the tibia and tibia with the displacement of fragments. I estimated the situation and send the guide for a help. I asked him to take the evacuation equipment such as the piece of tarpaulin and the strap from the car. My friend ornithologist was in a bad condition. I gave him the couple of pill of Ketonal and fixed the unnaturally twisted leg. I did it with the help of the sticks and the belt. At the beginning he didn’t allow to make it and cursed loudly when I was doing it. I used Ketonal which had in the mobile kit. If you ask me how often I use it , I would reply – regularly. It’s not always me, but sometimes my fellows have head or toothache and it happens on the mountains. But non of them carries the same kit. I hope that this story will help them to realize how important it can be. The composition of my mobile medicine kit is a truncated version of the Stationary kit but with the bias to the survival. It fits in the small plastic case from the patches. The case burns well if I need it to make fire in the bad weather and contains 200 ml of liquid if I use it as the cup. Previously I used the soft waterproof bag but all pills in it , have been always erased to powder. Outside, the case is pulled with a rubber ring, which can be used as a plait or to fix something. My mini list of the medicine was made with the accounting of my weak points. 1) bandage elastic 2) bandage sterile 3) alcohol wipes 4) napkin diseminarea 5) duct tape silver as killers in American films, glue all 6) patches bactericidal, corn, different sizes 7) sunscreen cream with lipstick 8) gas lighter 9) Ketonal 10) and strong 11) levomicetin (12) andipal 13) paracetomol 14) suprastin 15) Riboxin 16) potassium orotate 17) trental     The last three are adaptogens and I have them just in case because need them only in the long trips which are organized on the height from 3500 masl. It took us 5 hours to pull down to the camp my friend ornithologist. But now I know that if you have to carry the man with the weight of 70 kg you need not less than six strong men. Most of the way we went by road though it was covered by snow.   Highlands. Unfortunately the adaptation skills of Home sapiens are not perfect because they evolved on the plain not in the mountains. For example one of the features of our body is to regulate the respiratory rate not by the amount of oxygen needed in the blood, but by the excess carbon dioxide in the body. It’s one of the reasons of the mountains disease. The symptoms are higher when the human exhausts himself with physical activities in the conditions of low partial pressure of oxygen. I belong to the type of people who often have such kind of problems. The first symptoms appear on the altitude from 3000 masl. I can’t stay on the height 3600-3800 masl (Alatau) without adaptation. Fortunately it’s the highest mountains in Kazakhstan where we can hunt but the mountains are not only in our Republic. I had to treat very seriously to the expedition to Nepal because the hunts there took place on the height about 5000 masl. I got the trophy on 5165 masl. Before the trip I needed to increase my cardiorespiratory endurance and hematocrit ( the number of erythrocytes'). The prep was conducted in three directions: the intensive training on the height more than 2000 masl., medical support during that period and intension training on the maximum altitude just before the trip. All those recommendation I’d received from the sport doctors and climbers. I has to note that the medicine mention below has to be coordinated with your doctor! Adaptogens:   1.         Multivitamin, for example, "Vitrum", vitamins will never be extra 2.         Ascorbic acid is a supplier of vitamin C for the body. 3.         Acetazolamide (diacarb, diamox) – diuretic (diuretic), which reduces intracranial pressure and allows to reduce or eliminate the symptoms of mountain disease. The presence of bursting headaches, increasing with strain, slopes, feeling of pressure on the eyeballs from inside the skull, nausea, especially vomiting indicate an increase of intracranial pressure and in most cases are an indication for admission. 4.         Dexamethasone reduces the severity of acute mountain sickness when you climb to the height of over 4000 m. Preventive treatment can be started a few hours before climbing. The drug relieves symptoms of acute mountain disease for several hours, but does not promote acclimatization. 5.         Dibazol – vasodilator with adaptogenic properties 6.         "Viagra" – a few years ago the scientists began to study the usage of "Viagra" as a preventive measure. The drug improves peripheral blood circulation, including in the lungs, its enzymes block vascular spasm (its’ not necessary to inform your partner about taking the drug) 7.         Calcium pangamate has a distinct antihypoxic effect; calcium Pantothenate (vitamin B3) normalizes metabolism. 8.         Potassium orotate normalizes the liver and heart, microcirculation in capillaries, is effective in frostbite. 9.         Glutamic acid is an amino acid involved in metabolic processes. 10.       Methionine – an amino acid that normalizes the liver in hypoxia, promotes the absorption of fats. 11.       Panangin – potassium-magnesium salt of asparagine amino acid, antiarrhythmic agent, conducts K+ ions, Mg2+ into cells. 12.       Riboxin stimulates the heart, enhances the action of potassium orotate, has a beneficial effect on the heart and liver. 13.       Trental (aspirin, Trombas, Cardiomagnyl) to thin the blood by increasing its viscosity due to dehydration. Telling the truth most of the hunters don’t need these medicaments even being in the highland. The carbohydrate diet is enough for them. We know that carbohydrate increase the resistance to hypoxia. Being on the height you need to take more glucose, sugar and other easily digestible carbohydrates, but not more than 300-400 g per day. I’ve mentioned already about training before the hunt and started in a month before the leaving and also took some medicine.   1.         Riboxin – active substance inosin, activates the process of blood supply to the heart muscle, improves the energy balance of the myocardium, activates metabolic processes in hypoxia, improves the elasticity of the heart muscle, etc. (2 pills per day, morning-evening). 2.         Folic acid (vitamin B9) activates an increase in red blood cells and cellular recovery processes (2 pills per day, morning-evening). 3.         Potassium orotate reduces recovery time, increases productivity, stimulates endogenous processes (2 tablets per day, morning-evening). 4.         Multivitamins Optimen American company ON, vitamins you can take any vitamins which suit you (2 tablets a day, morning-evening). 5.         Glucosamine is the building block of cartilage in joints (2 tablets daily, morning-evening). I began the active prevention in 4 days before the hike     1.         Diacarb (acetazolamide) – a diuretic of medium strength, removes excess water from the ventricles of the brain, as doctors say, It’s the base of the pharmacological prevention of mountain disease. The multifactorial effect of acclimatization made this drug very popular among climbers (125 mg twice a day, morning-evening). In some people, I am among them, it causes tingling fingers and toes, as well as changes in the taste of carbonated drinks. And don't forget to drink more – the drug is diuretic. 2.         Gencom – extract of the plant Ginkgo biloba. This dietary BAA improves the elasticity of blood vessels, blood supply and brain activity, reduces blood viscosity, increases the flow of oxygen to the organs, etc. (2 capsules a day, morning-evening).   I have some more drugs for the active therapy. 1.         Dexamethasone is a synthetic steroid. It has anti-inflammatory, anti-allergic, desensitizing, immunosuppressive, anti-shock and antitoxic effect. Pill №1 of the kit of climbers. Take one tablet (4 mg) every eight hours if symptoms occur. 2.         Paracetamol is a widespread non-narcotic analgesic, has anti-inflammatory properties. Take 1000 mg once a day.   The training and medical therapy made very good results. I didn’t suffer from the mountains sickness. I was tired a little bit but it was normal condition for a man who lost 3000 cal per day. There were 4 hunters in my group and we all were in similar physical conditions and age. The next one was Daniel- the doctor from Spain. He also trained for that trip and hadn’t any health problems. The other two guys Jorge from Catalonia and Enton from France were the mountains guides who were spending half of the year in the mountains. But they both had the mountains disease! They managed to resolve those problems when Daniel and I persuaded them to take pills. If we talk about the hunt in Nepal I have to mention some moments: take the sunscreen lotion more than F50, lipstick with F20 and festal. The food in the highlands is digested not so easily like on the plaint and better to help your intestinal by enzymes.   http://prohunt.kz/forum/forum35/topic2050/ http://prohunt.kz/forum/forum35/topic469/